Analyzing Charlie Chaplin's Hollywood Classics

This assignment provides an in-depth analysis of Charlie Chaplin's contributions to Hollywood classics. It explores how his character 'The Little Tramp' revolutionized comic film industry, brought change from comedy to critically acclaimed roles, and inspired cartoon characters. The document also examines the impact of Chaplin's work on society, including its representation of simplicity and ease in a complex era.

FILM HISTORY

“Taking a single star from the Classical Hollywood period (1920-1960) and with
reference to specific films from this era, explore the characteristics of their persona and
discuss how their persona was constructed through their film roles and studio marketing.”
The classical era of Hollywood has been able to bring a revolutionized change in film
industry. The shift of how movies were made in that period is dynamic and a positive growth in
the industry was noticed at that time. The essay states regarding changes being observed in the
production and content of movies from 1920s to 1960s (Milton, 2014). Charlie Chaplin is
considered to bring revolution in the Hollywood industry during this period. Hence, in specific
reference to the films that were prepared in this era, persona of Charlie Chaplin will be analysed
in detail. The essay also makes comprehensive discussion concerning film roles being done in
Hollywood classics, such as, “The Gold Rush” (1925), “The Kid” (1921), “Easy Street” (1917),
“Modern Times” (1936), “The Great Dictator” (1940), “A King in New York” (1957), etc. His
evergreen character as “The Little Tramp” will also be analysed in detail to understand the clear
persona of Charlie Chaplin (Horton, 2015).
The classical Hollywood period, which lies between 1920 to 1960, designating both
visual and narrative style of film making eventually became the most powerful and persuasive
style of film making worldwide. It further developed into sound film production. By mid 1920s
various prominent American directors and other actors who used to work independently since
early 10s, became a part of new studio system to continue their work in the film industry (Howe,
2013). Many great work emerged out in this period in the form of actors and directors. One
among those famous Hollywood star was Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, commonly known by
people as Charlie Chaplin.
Charlie Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker and composer who rose his fame
by the era of silent films. His overall career spanned for more than 75 years from early childhood
in Victorian Era until a year before his death in 1977. Charlie started his career as a stage comic
artist where he used to perform comic roles in live theatres. He then stepped into Hollywood and
was able to badge certain movie roles with big brands. He became a renowned face by
performing exceptionally good in silent comic roles in the films. The first film done by Charlie
was the Tramp costume. Majority of the Chaplin’s film revolves around Tramp’s attitude
(Clayton, 2014). The humour was not created to the act of certain situation but to the reaction to
that state. For instance, the humour may not come out from tramp bumping into the tree but
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lifting his hat out of apology. Dan Kamin has defined his comedy as quirky mannerism. His on-
camera tricks were the common features being found in all of his movies. Charlie’s work is
considered as a core combination of tears and laughter.
The film career for Charlie started in 1914 where he represented himself in a forgettable
character in the movie “Make a Living”. In order to differentiate himself from the crowd, he
landed himself to a single identifiable character “The Little Tramp”. The character was idealised
as a little sweet man with a bowler hat, cane and moustache became the iconic figure of silent era
of comedy. The audience was introduced to this character through the movie “Kid Auto Races at
Venice” in 1914 (Busigny and et.al., 2015). He was able to constantly create engaging films till
1930s. Then he switched his genre to critically acclaimed films as well.
Apart from comic moves, Charlie Chaplin was also able to do certain tragic scenes while
creating another film, called “The Gold Rush” in 1925. The movie was inspired by the fate of
Donner Party. Certain controversial issues of the society were also touched by the him in movies
such as, illegitimacy in “The Kid” (1921), drug use in “Easy Street” (1917) and immigration in
“The immigrant” (1917). He was also able to incorporate political message through his films,
which includes, “Modern Times” (1936) which depicted the miserable conditions of factory
workers. “The Great Dictator” (1940) paraded the life of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Other movie of Charlie Chaplin, called “Monsieur Verdoux” focussed on criticising war and
capitalism. “A King in New York” (1957) discussed the life incidences of McCarthyism
(Shumway, 2015).
There are various movies of Charlie Chaplin which incorporated autobiographical
elements. He was able to play himself every time as he faced miserable youth and even his
childhood days. The character being played in his movie “The Kid” was the representation of
childhood trauma which he faced when he was send to orphanage as a child. Other film that he
did, named “Limelight” (1952) was the reflection of life of his parents. Certain researchers
argued that the reflection of her roles was displayed in problematic relationship he faced due to
his mother getting mentally ill (Marazzato and Sparavigna, 2014).
Common structure that is usually followed in the films of Charlie Chaplin looks like the
sketches being tied together. Rather than having a strong tight knitted and unified storyline, it is a
theme and setting of roles. These films are simple, relaxing and economic. His acting skills are
considered as pioneer and his representation of comic is measured as one of the most important
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thing of 20th century. The characters of Charlie Chaplin were able to bring a revolution in the
Hollywood industry. After the release of his movie “The Circus”, sound films were introduced in
the industry where he believed that these types of films lack artistry of silent films. Even after
changes were introduced in the industry, he continued to work on silent films. “City Lights” was
his next venture where Tramp’s love for a blind flower girl and his efforts were displayed in the
film to save money for the operation of her sight (Maland, 2012). He went to the extent of
neurotic state to reach to the level of perfection. After the introduction of sound, one benefit was
received by films of Charlie Chaplin, where he got the opportunity to get a musical score
recorded for his movies.
The techniques used by Charlie were a perfect example to perfection in acting and
performing theatres. Charlie could have been a wonderful clown if film industry did not exist at
that time. However, availability of films and Hollywood gave him a platform where to raise the
comedy, circus and musical hall acting to another level in the most aesthetic way. The techniques
used in the gags of Charlie liberated the comedy in the film industry (Tsivian, 2014). It helped in
representing comic roles with clarity. Charlie was able to bring the set of comedy to another
level where he refined, trimmed and polished the role and presented his inner working in such a
manner that people with delicate stimulus were able to react with laughter soon. He was able to
bring revolution to the comic roles in the Hollywood industry. It is significant to note that the
best presented films of Charlie Chaplin can be watched over and over again without any loss of
enjoyment. It can be stated that there are certain kind of gags that are so deep to be inexhaustible.
The comic state and aesthetic value have nothing in bag to surprise the audience when the movie
has already been watched once (Potter, 2013).
The persona of tramp being represented by Charlie Chaplin in majority of his movies was
later played by other comedians in various movies as well. Various cartoon characters, such as,
“Felix the Cat” and “Mickey Mouse” were also the inspired roles of Charlie Chaplin. He was also
an inspiration to Dada Art movements. As per the views of founding members of United Artists,
Chaplin plays a significant role in the development of the industry (Charlie Chaplin, 2018).
In the present 21st century, some of the Chaplin’s film are regarded as classics and
considered as one of the best lot of the films being prepared in 20th century. “City Lights” rank
among critic’s top 50. Other movies such as, “The Great Dictator” and “The Gold Rush” has
been placed among the top 250 movies of the same genre. The iconic character of Tramp played
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by Charlie Chaplin is the founder of feature length film comedy. Other recognizable character
such as, Mr. bean was an influential form of tramp. During the tenure of 1920 to 1960, Chaplin
was the most recognizable character in Hollywood industry. His movies were the iconic mix of
sentiments and slapsticks, which invented a new name called, dramedy. Richly comedic
expressions of Charlie made him first artist in this genre (D'haeyere, 2014). His role in drama
called “A Woman of Paris” was appreciated and its influence have been determined on Ernst
Lubitsch's film “The Marriage Circle” (1924). It leads to the development of sophisticated
comedy. It has been stated that Charlie Chaplin is the only person who went down in the history
of Hollywood and has been able to develop beautiful craft of Hollywood. There is no doubt that
has been inculcated that the films that have been left behind by Charlie Chaplin may never grow
old.
Studio marketing is one of the important aspects that can be analysed in the case of
Charlie Chaplin movies. The change being brought in the genre of movies in the form of silent,
sound, comic, autobiographical etc have been seen and relevantly stated in the movies of Charlie
Chaplin. There were various methods used to present the art being performed in various ways.it
includes, theatre, street shows, big banner shows, short film, long feature films etc. The storyline
and comic role of Chaplin is commonly used in literary fiction as well.
The persona being presented by Charlie Chaplin are considered to be an important part of
classic Hollywood collection. The composer of silent era became a worldwide heart throb to
large number of public. He is represented as the funniest actor of his times (Wood, 2017). He
became famous with the character of “The Tramp”, idealised as a little sweet man with a bowler
hat, cane and moustache became the iconic figure of silent era of comedy. It elevated the
industry to another level which may not be thought by anybody else.
Hence, the persona of Charlie Chaplin is strong and reflects something new and energetic
through his role. Though the real life of Chaplin was quite opposite to what he presented in his
reel life, he has been able to create a mark on the audiences. Both narrative and visual style of
film making was appropriately presented by the movies being presented in 1920s to 1960s
characterizing Charlie Chaplin. Hence, he is considered to have a strong and evergreen character
for the era of 1920s to 1960s of classic Hollywood. His character is measured as exceptionally
creative and original in the content who touched the core topics of society which is not generally
preferred by other actors of directors.
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From the above answer, it can be concluded that there are variety of changes that can be
analysed in the characters of the movies represented in Hollywood Classics (Bilton, 2013).
Charlie Chaplin was an English Hollywood actor who was able to bring revolution in the comic
industry. The character called “The Little Tramp” played by him was able to catch attention of
numerous audience, directors and actors worldwide. Further, he also switched from comic to
critically acclaimed and autobiographical roles (Eberwein, 2014). He is remembered to bring
change in the industry whose character was then brought back to life in different form, such as
Mr. Bean. The inspirations of comic were also used by various cartoon character. Hence, it can
be stated that the persona of Charlie Chaplin was dynamic and iconic as well. Moreover, it can
be stated that bringing that silent era into fashion and representing it in a manner of ease and
simplicity was the best part of Charlie Chaplin movies.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Milton, J., 2014. Tramp: the life of Charlie Chaplin. Open Road Media.
Horton, A., 2015. A companion to film comedy. John Wiley & Sons.
Howe, L., 2013. Charlie Chaplin in the age of Mechanical Reproduction: reflexive ambiguity in
Modern Times. College Literature. 40(1). pp.45-65.
Clayton, M., 2014. Modernism's Moving Bodies. Modernist Cultures. 9(1). pp.27-45.
Busigny, T. and et.al., 2015. Proper name anomia with preserved lexical and semantic
knowledge after left anterior temporal lesion: a two-way convergence defect. Cortex. 65.
pp.1-18.
Shumway, D. R., 2015. Woody Allen. A Companion to Film Comedy, pp.130-150.
Marazzato, R. and Sparavigna, A. C., 2014. Extracting networks of characters and places from
written works with CHAPLIN. arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.4259.
Maland, C. J., 2012. Chaplin and Silent Film Comedy. The Wiley-Blackwell History of American
Film.
Tsivian, Y., 2014. Charlie Chaplin and His Shadows: On Laws of Fortuity in Art. Critical
Inquiry. 40(3). pp.71-84.
Potter, G., 2013. The Tramp & the Culture Industry: Adorno, Chaplin, and the Possibility of
Progressive Comedy. Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and
Theory. 69(1). pp.73-90.
D'haeyere, H., 2014. Slapstick on Slapstick: Mack Sennett's Metamovies Revisit the Keystone
Film Company. Film History: An International Journal. 26(2). pp.82-111.
Wood, R. E., 2017. On Film. In Nature, Artforms, and the World Around Us (pp. 201-228).
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Bilton, A., 2013. Introducing American Silent Film Comedy: Clowns, Conformity,
Consumerism. In Silent Film Comedy and American Culture (pp. 13-32). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Eberwein, R.T., 2014. Film and the Dream Screen: A Sleep and a Forgetting. Princeton
University Press.
Online
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Charlie Chaplin. 2018. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.celebrities-galore.com/celebrities/charlie-chaplin/home/>.
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