The Gold Rush

1. In class we discussed Mack Sennett and how he created the Keystone Company Films, in which Chaplin and Keaton became a part of. Chaplin began working for Keystone in 1913 and was making about $75- 150 a week. He started off making short films that last about 10-15 minutes each. From keystone Chaplin went on to working for Essaney from 1915-1916 making $75,000 a year. And from Essany Chaplin went on to working for Mutual from 1916-1917 making $670,000 a year. In 1918, Chaplin was working for First National making $1,000,000 a year which was a lot of money back then. Charlie Chaplin always believed in creating a certain character when it came to acting in movies. He came up with the idea of the Tramp; a shy, little fellow, who is an underdog, who who yearns for love, acceptance, or money. In the Gold Rush he yearned for all those things. Charlie Chaplin was an auter director and was very famous during his time. He came up with the idea of The Gold Rush which was his favorite film. The Gold Rush costed $970,000 to make and grossed over $6,000,000 which was a lot of money during that era. The movie was a huge success. It was one of the funniest movies during that time and is still considered one of the funniest movies in film history. in the movie Charlie Chaplin played his character of the Tramp which many people loved and enjoyed. He was an underdog who yearned for money, love , and acceptance. In the movie he mostly used medium shots rather than close-ups. The only time Chaplin felt it was neccessary to use close-ups was in the more serious parts of the movie. The Gold Rush was a movie where Chaplin used many different elements such as rejection, ridicule, and work ethic as a form of comedy. The Gold Rush still stands today as one of the funniest movies ever made.

2. http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/biography/articles/5-The-Gold-Rush . I found an article on charlichaplin.com written by David Robbinson about how Charlie Chaplin came up with the idea for The Gold Rush. In the article, Davidson wrote about how Chaplin first came up with his idea for The Gold Rush when viewing photos of the 1896 Kolndike Gold Rush. He was struck when he saw an image of an endless line of prospectors marching up the Chilkoot Pass. Chaplin was also reading a book at the time about the Donner Party Disaster in 1846, where a group of immigrants were stuck snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, and had to resort to eating their own moccasins and the corpses of their dead companions. Chaplin believed he could use such a trajedy and turn it into a comedy, which is how he came up with the idea for The Gold Rush.

3. After reading the article I found that it made a lot of sense. The article explained how Chaplin got the idea for The Gold Rush by looking at a picture of an endless line of prospectors marching up the Chilkoot Pass and reading about the Donner Party Disaster where snowbound immigrants ate their belongings and dead companions. It made sense because the movie opened up with a wide shot of a large line of prospectors marching up a pass. It also made sense because in the movie Chaplin and another character are stuck in a cabin during a snowstorm and resort to eating their shoes. The other character was so straved that he saw Chaplin as a giant chicken and tried to eat him. I found the article to be very useful in understanding Chaplin's idea for the ovie. I find it immpressive how Chaplin could take such a trajedy as the Donner Party Disaster and find a way to turn it into a comedy.   

4. Overall I found the film to be very funny and entertaining. it was very good and very different from other comedies I've seen. I now understand why The Gold Rush is such an important movie in film history. It's Chaplin's best movie and grossed over $6,000,000 which was a large amount of money back then. It is one of the funniest movies ever made and during that time period it had audiences evrywhere laughing. The movie uses such ridculed and trajic events as  a form of comedy which you do not see in many other comedies. The movie was filmed in such a short time period and yet came out as a masterpiece. Charlie Chaplin was one of the most famous and loved comedians during that time and he showed all of his talent while making and performing in The Gold Rush.