“The Gold Rush.” United States. 1925.
- Director: Charles Chaplin.
- Performance: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcolm Waite, Georgia Hale.
- Screenplay: Charles Chaplin.
- Banda Sonora: Charles Chaplin and Carli Elinor, without crediting the latter in 1942.

- “The Gold Rush” on IMDb.
- “The Gold Rush” in the English Wikipedia.

What is it?

Alaska, 1898. Gold is discovered, ORO, ORO ¡¡¡!, And all good Americans who prefer to live the American way of life to cultivate their minds and hearts to leave there as scavenging vultures. In this land without God or law, the No Name Vagabundo live a series of adventures while trying to find the gold that will make you rich, but also love …

THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.

Barely three decades after the true gold fever of Alaska (the one to which it was Jack London, author of “White Fang” and “The Call of the jungle”), Chaplin filmed the movie that is probably (along with The Great Dictator “) the peak of their film career. His character of the tramp had already starred in a feature film ( “The kid”), and it was time to bring a new level. At that time lived the “crazy years”, the great economic boom of the United States after World War I, the product of stock market speculation of the violent crack before 1929. Chaplin built a savage and merciless satire of the mood of the American way of life, and as a counterpoint emphasizes human values ever (solidarity, love) as much more effective than the ever elusive and distant money, achieving happiness. And all this while releasing laughter after laughter.

Why see it?

- Mainly for their delirious sequence, which even today are still fresh, jovial and original: the “dance of the rolls” the Tramp dreaming while waiting for his beloved, or the scene of the search engines as sipping a gourmet Old boot (his only food) as if tallarinata with a delicious stew, or the hilarious sequence of the ramshackle house on the verge of going down a precipice in the midst of a fierce storm … Chaplin put any meat on the grill in this film, and it shows.

- The parable of profound depth. The Tramp was going desperately looking for gold, but in the end, when rich and millionaire, is just returning to his own essence as you can conquer his elusive love.

- It’s all an exercise in brevity and irony. Today, a story like that would have been treated as a three-year epic film three hours each. At that time, Chaplin and half hours it was enough to make it clear history and one of the most enjoyable comedies of all time.

IDEAL FOR: laughing at laughter, the tears until you jump in the eyes.

Tokyo Cowboy is a pleasant, well-meaning effort that raises a lot of interesting ideas but fails to execute them properly. The story concerns the journey of No Ogawa, a young man infatuated with Westerns, who travels from his native Japan to visit his childhood pen pal, Kate, in Canada, in search of that genuine Western experience. But things have changed a bit, since he and Kate were children; as an artist, Kate feels she’s moved past her hick-town background, and she’s also an extremely closeted lesbian living with her girlfriend. Naturally, this means the stage is set for the expected misunderstandings and miscommunication, which is where things begin to break down. Read the rest of this entry »