Gold Rush
1.Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.
In the last class we discussed Charlie Chaplin’s movie “The Gold Rush”. We also discussed Keystone Co. Films and how they developed the early careers of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton wrote and directed his own films like The General in 1926. Keystone Co. Films relied mostly on on long shot, physical gags, mechanical motion. The Gold Rush was a comedy but it also had emotional and serious moments in the movie. The movie showed hunger and cannibalism along with cruel rejection from Georgia, ridicule and work ethic being that in the movie he was working for food.
2) Find a related article (on the film, director, studio, actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) You can use the library or the internet. Cite the article or copy the url to your journal entry. Summarize in your own words the related article but do not plagiarize any content.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5779/The-Gold-Rush/articles.html
The article that I chose to use was an article from TCM.com (Turner Classic Movies). The article was a movie review giving a brief synopsis of the movie. In the article it stated that "The Gold Rush was Chaplin's first starring role as a collaborator inthe United Artists company, formed six years previously with DouglasFairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith." In the article it also says that Chaplin was interested in what happened with the Donner party in 1846. The Donner party had to turn to cannibalism in order to prevent starvation and the survivors ate the bodies of the dead companions. The movie was filmed where the Donner family was camping. Chaplin wanted to have Lita Grey play the role of the dance hall girl at $75 dollars aweek. But Chaplin got her pregnat and had to use a different person. Chaplin was charged with statutory rape when he married Grey. Chaplin hired Georgia Hale as the dance hall woman.
3) Relate the article to the screening
After reading the article I started to really understand where Chaplin got all of his ideas and how he put the whole movie together. The article briefly tells you what the movie is about and how he put the whole movie together. Reading the article I learned that the movie is based off of true events. The Donner's family camped in the same spot where Chaplin shot the movie. The Donner's family turned to cannibalism in order to survive by eating their dead partner's bodies. In the article I also learned that Chaplin got the original "Georgia" Lita Grey pregnant and was charged with statutory rape being that she was underaged. He had to pick Georgie Hale because Lita Grey's pregnancy was showing to much.
4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article. I am less interested in whether you liked or disliked a film, (although that can be part of this) than I am in your understanding of its place in film history or the contributions of the director.
Before I watched the movie I always thought that silent films were boring but after watching "The Gold Rush" I appreciate it more now. Watching the film I felt every emotion that Chaplin felt. It is amazing how Chaplin did such a great job acting without saying a word. Chaplin also did a great job at making the audience laugh and making them think. For instance, he was sad and depressed when Georgia rejected him but then in another scene he would do something incredibly funny. I feel that he made the audience laugh at the perfect moments as if he knew it would work. Another thing that attracted me to this film was that he shot the film in an area where people actually camped in order to get a feel of how they lived. Doing that helped him and the other actors really get into character. The music in the movie also set the moods of each scene in the movie.
