Film Journal: The Gold Rush

     Last week in Film History, the class had watched the classic silent film starring Charlie Chaplin called The Gold Rush. Throughout prior classes, we talked about the fundamentals of the silent film covering topics such as visual gags and Chaplin's own Tramp outfit. In silent films, the acting relied mostly on what the actor could do to himself that involved any type of comical action. Some of the other known silent film acts were known for purposely hurting themselves in some ridiculous fashion just to get a kick out of the audience's reaction. For example, Chaplin tends to fall a lot in comparison to some of the bigger, more intimidating actors tend to abuse him for comedy purposes.
     Upon searching through the depths of the online jungle we call the internet, I found an article hosted by Turner Classic Movies' website that had some information on The Gold Rush. That article can be found by clicking HERE. This article explains the entirety of the film for anyone who has not seen it and gives quite the summary about what happens throughout it. Covering the aspects of what happens when Chaplin gets to Alaska in the first place, the article explains a backstory as well as what the future of The Gold Rush held. "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," which is a direct quote out of the article. 
     This article made me think more independently about the film in terms of a whole idea instead of just an occurrence of events. Upon watching a silent film, many people may look at it as just another movie without sound, but that is not the case. Back in the days of silent films, there were not any special effects, so anything that was done wrong had to be completely re-shot. Now a days, many shots are just covered up by computer generated imagery in order for the film to get out of production quicker. Another thing that was mentioned in the article is the fact that Chaplin not only directed and produced The Gold Rush but also did the entirety of the screenplay for the film. This means that the majority of this was entirely his creation. 
     From the perspective as someone who has not seem many silent films, I thought that this one of the better ones I saw. Generally, the ideology of a silent film has a lot to do with the length because I feel as if the length of the film has a lot to do with the audience. The Gold Rush was one of the longer silent films that I enjoyed because it had a good plot to it. The story wasn't bland like some other productions of the time. Many silent films started out as just very small clips of film that repeated for people to watch over and over again, but this had a recurring story that kept the mind interested. Personally, I liked The Gold Rush as a timeless film. It really showed how revolutionary the industry was getting as the years went by. For it's time, the comedic values placed into play by the snow effect and how the characters kept getting blown out of the cabin because of the wind were done very well. For someone who did know much about film and lived in the time frame when this was released, that must have looked like the most real encounter with wind and snow that the audience has ever seen before. 

CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM

1) (x) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

2) (x) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.

3) (x) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.

4) (x)I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.

5) (x) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

6) (x) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.

7) (x) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.

8) (x) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.

Name: __Michael De Man_______  Date: __01 February 2014_________