Christopher Garcia
1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.
-In class we talked about how the idea
of a silent comedy could come about and the details that went into making a
silent comedy at the time. I was interested to see before the movie started how
in depth the purely visual gags would truly be on the eyes and not on the ears.
To my surprise I found it quite enjoyable and it appeared that there was sound
due to my understanding of the entire film simply through the visual gags that
had meaning behind it. However, though it is mostly only visual the sounds that
were introduced in the film I found was very necessary in order to be able to
understand the scenes correctly in terms of sadness, happiness, surprise, and
chaos. Without that limited sound I feel as if it would be less of a comedy and
more of a drama and a lot less entertaining. Furthermore, though the shots were
being rolled at 8-10 fps and were rolled at 16-20 it did not feel as slow as I thought
it was going to feel. In fact it felt quite fast paced, although I would
definitely give the credit to that to the great actors of that time that were
in the movie.
2) Find a related article and summarize the content. (on the film, director,
studio, actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) You can use the library or the
internet.
-After reading the
article I found out a couple of interesting things that I did not know
necessarily took place in order for this film to work as it did. A quick
example would be that I did not know that The Gold Rush, “was altered by
Chaplin in 1941 during the sound era to include a new orchestral score composed
by Chaplin, and the deadpan wit of Chaplin's voice-over narration adds another
element of comedy to this revised version.”(5th Paragraph the Gold Rush). I
also found out that back in 1941 the Gold Rush, cost nine hundred thousand dollars.
Which back in that time was really more like nine million dollars in present
time. The thought of the expense for what we saw back then in comparison to the
visual effects we have in our present time boggled my mind. Such questions as
what does are visual effects cost now and what was the great difference between
there visual effects and ours? This article that I came across also talks about
Chaplin’s earlier life and the films he tried out for. With that said I feel I have
gained a different view on the movie then I once did and found the results of
reading the article most fascinating.
3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did the article
support or change the way you thought about the film, director, content, etc.
-I talked about how
the article I found made me somewhat in the second question but I will go into
a bit more detail in this response. The article ultimately made me more aware
of what it truly was to create a great film as this. There was a lot of collaboration
for the stars and co-stars in the play. The movie in itself back then cost nine
hundred thousand dollars that speaks volumes in a sense of the matter. There
was also the obvious fact that the director Charlie Chaplin was a generous in comedy
and without him such a great success would have never happened in the film
industry. These in turn made me really try to understand Charlie, his goals and
ambitions for the Gold Rush. To conclude, I enjoyed reading the article and
ultimately the background of the Gold Rush was more interesting than I thought
it would be.
4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion,
as a result of 4 things: the screening, class discussions, text material and the
article.
-In my point of
view I feel this movie to be a great success in the comedy as well as dramatic genre.
There were many ups and many downs as well as many funny, chaotic, and
hilarious scenes. This all being done in nineteen forty one was surprising
considering that the technology was very minimal in the public back then. I
pondered if those comedians and stars were in present time and made the movie
now how it would look. The differences between the two as well as similarities
would be an interesting find and is something that I find to be very curious.
Furthermore, the visual effects and the sound to follow it up were pleasant to
my pallet considering the entire dialog in the movies nowadays. The only small dialog
was in text in certain parts of the movie but aside from that it was all
visual, very clear set tone (Mostly due to the music played), and ultimately a great
movie. It had all the right elements with the right amount of pizazz when it
needed it at the right time. Alongside that the actors were the geniuses from
that time in comedy and drama and definitely made the movie what it turned out
to be. I was very content and enjoyed watching and learning about the Gold
Rush.
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