Director: Charlie Chaplin
Year: 1921
Runtime: 53 min
Source: Youtube
Surely this will be a sad cliche by the time I give up on this mad quest, but while watching Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, I couldn't help but think about superhero movies. Specifically, the way that superhero movies once could be relied on to contain predictable and largely superfluous plots, and now, due to their massive popularity, they're trying to adapt themselves to a whole host of genres, from slapstick comedies to emotional dramas.
Somehow that's the best analogy for me to make sense of The Kid. This was Charlie Chaplin's gambit, to adapt his vaudeville-rooted comedy, all based around his wildly successful Tramp character, to somehow fit into a tearjerker drama, which seems to be heavily influenced by D.W. Griffith (who Chaplin definitely admired and partnered with to create United Artists). Chaplin adopted Griffith's penchant for nameless, archetypal characters (The Tramp is featured alongside The Woman and The Man), and The Kid's theme of scrappiness and self-reliance in the face of an uncaring bureaucratic system is certainly similar to that of Intolerance, although the political message here is subdued.
To give credit to Chaplin, who I've never been crazy about in the same way that I love Buster Keaton, the whole experiment really did turn out well. The humor tempers what would otherwise be an intolerable melodrama. The linchpin that keeps these disparate elements from flying apart is Chaplin's superb control of his expressions and mannerisms. The Tramp character is nowhere close to faultless in this movie as he fathers an orphan child, but in his own absurd way, he lets out tiny hints that the character loves this boy.
It genuinely is a sweet film, and my only regret is that I didn't look more carefully for a better version of it. If you're looking to see it, I would try to see the Criterion version if possible.
Year: 1921
Runtime: 53 min
Source: Youtube
Surely this will be a sad cliche by the time I give up on this mad quest, but while watching Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, I couldn't help but think about superhero movies. Specifically, the way that superhero movies once could be relied on to contain predictable and largely superfluous plots, and now, due to their massive popularity, they're trying to adapt themselves to a whole host of genres, from slapstick comedies to emotional dramas.
Somehow that's the best analogy for me to make sense of The Kid. This was Charlie Chaplin's gambit, to adapt his vaudeville-rooted comedy, all based around his wildly successful Tramp character, to somehow fit into a tearjerker drama, which seems to be heavily influenced by D.W. Griffith (who Chaplin definitely admired and partnered with to create United Artists). Chaplin adopted Griffith's penchant for nameless, archetypal characters (The Tramp is featured alongside The Woman and The Man), and The Kid's theme of scrappiness and self-reliance in the face of an uncaring bureaucratic system is certainly similar to that of Intolerance, although the political message here is subdued.
To give credit to Chaplin, who I've never been crazy about in the same way that I love Buster Keaton, the whole experiment really did turn out well. The humor tempers what would otherwise be an intolerable melodrama. The linchpin that keeps these disparate elements from flying apart is Chaplin's superb control of his expressions and mannerisms. The Tramp character is nowhere close to faultless in this movie as he fathers an orphan child, but in his own absurd way, he lets out tiny hints that the character loves this boy.
It genuinely is a sweet film, and my only regret is that I didn't look more carefully for a better version of it. If you're looking to see it, I would try to see the Criterion version if possible.
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