Gold Rush Journal

Gus Perez

FILM 2600: Film History

Dr. Cathleen Londino

Fall 2011

1)   Before watching the film The Gold Rush, I was familiar with the appearances of Charles Chaplin but was not familiar with his work or passion in the film industry in the early 1920’s. From what we learned in class Chaplin gained majority of his success from silent films by directing and composing most of his work. Even at the times when our country was going through the Great Depression and World War I, Chaplin still managed to gain success and be able to bring a smile and tear to many of its viewers. Although Chaplin has done various works with his silent films I was glad that my first Charles Chaplin film was The Gold Rush because it was a perfect example of how someone could go from rags to riches, and in this film Chaplin did an excellent job in portraying that. Although the filmmaking was still raw in the early 1900’s, Chaplin managed to still have a good storyline as well as the filming the film by using different angles to portray how he was feeling. For example when Charles “the tramp” got stood up by Georgia, the camera closes up to his face to give the viewer that sympathy towards him and how hurt he was after making efforts to making his date with Georgia and her friends memorable. Not only that, but that was one of my favorite scenes from the film because I feel like many of us have been put in a situation like that in which we can relate to.

2)  Charles Chaplin and The Gold Rush: In this article they talk about how Charles Chaplin filmed one of the greatest films of all time. Yes, we are in the year 2011 and the film The Gold Rush is still in consideration for one of the top 100 greatest films of all times. Not only is the film memorable but so is the Director himself in Charles Chaplin, who back in the early 20’s was considered one of the if not THE most popular man in the world. So step back Brad Pitt or any other popular actor of our era. Chaplin was remarkable for his creativity and unique style of silent films in his time. In 1916, his contract called for a paycheck of $10,000 a week (in today’s purchasing power, that would be about $175,000 weekly), until it got to the point were no company was able to contract him. The Gold Rush also took longer to film than regular films in those times which his took 17 months to complete and with a budget $923,886 which was the most expensive of any silent films. At the end of the day it all paid off because Chaplin’s unique style revolutionized filmmaking and silent films of its era as well. http://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v1n3/chaplin.html

3)  The article correlates with the screening because this film is the one, which made Chaplin’s popularity rise. This film shows how much of a perfectionist Charles was in his film making and also genius in the way he directed his film baring there was no audio in the films, he still made his delivery and impacted the audience with his creativity as well.

4)  After being apart of the 1898 Yukon Gold Rush, Charles “the Tramp” gets himself in a spontaneous, adventurous, and emotional expedition which starts out with him being stuck in a cabin with 2 strangers: Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) and Black Larsen (Tom Murray) because of a blizzard, to then going to a small town in which he meets Georgia and then becoming enamored with her. I personally enjoy the film because Chaplin goes through different courses all within a small amount of time and over comes everything at the end and went from nothing to something, which gives people a perfect example and motivation that we can all start from nothing and end with riches.