The Gold Rush : Charlie Chaplin

 If any cinema expert asks me to name a film which has made a seminal transformation in more than three aspects in cinema history, I will name Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) as one of the top three. Firstly, the spectacular visuals and special effects that made me stunned as soon as I had watched the beginning. Trailing the Chilkoot Pass, Alaska with hundreds of extras as the gold prospectors is an epoch-making scene in the film making history. And the wobbling cabin and hanging from the cliff were also the most ambitious attempts Charlie had taken till then, I think.

 

Secondly, the harsh weather and the desertion for a prolonged time and their subsequent detrimental consequences like acute starvation, brutal solitude, violent survival mechanisms were filmed and projected as realistic as a human can conceive of had been splendidly executed in the movie. I think, therefore, I doubt- were they really the creation of that era with enough technical innovations and assistance. I assume The Gold Rush might be the first survival movie made till date.

 

There are some absurd but comic seances in the film for which I applauded Charlie mostly. I felt a spasm as well as a pathos no sooner had I watched the eating shoes under the compulsive hunger and uncertainty. The hallucinatory and metamorphic sequences of Tramp as chicken and Big Jim as neurotic attacker are possibly one of the first depictions of surrealism. Insertion of magic realist elements in the movie were the signature style of Chaplin. Previously, he applied the fairy scene in “The Kid” (1921) the same way. I was amazed then by their visual and narrative creativity.

 

There is a scene where the lone prospector, Tramp, took a risky decision to arrange a New Year’s Eve dinner for the beloved Georgia and her friends. Tramp made a venture to earn some money by shoveling for the expenditure of the diner. He shoveled one door and piled up the snow to the next door and repeated the same to the next one and by tricking and cheating he made a good earning and handsome profit. In The Kid (1921), The Tramp and the kid made the same strategy where they firstly broke the window glass by throwing stones and then appeared to repair and to make business. The notes completely originated from Chaplin’s own life. In his autobiography he stated:

 

There was a strong element of the merchant in me. I was continuously preoccupied with business schemes. I would look at empty shops, speculating as to what profitable businesses I could make of them, ranging from fish and chips to grocery shops. It had always to do with food. All I needed was capital – but how does one get cap [4]

 

As I know Chaplin firmly proclaimed that if any movie, he should name for which he wished to be remembered eternally. That will be The Gold Rush (1925).

 

 

The Gold Rush [1925]
Charlie Chaplin

English, USA