Chaplin
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DVD details
Actor: Geraldine Chaplin, John Thaw, Moira Kelly, Paul Rhys, Robert Downey Jr.DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-05-20
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of Chaplin
DVD Review: a kitten in the wilderness
Summary: 5 Stars
Chaplin was a great Artist, and a pioneer of film, arguably the great art form of the 20th Century. American Poet Hart Crane put it this way, in his poem, Chaplinesque:
We make our meek adjustments,
Contented with such random consolations
As the wind deposits
In slithered and too ample pockets.
For we can still love the world, who find
A famished kitten on the step, and know
Recesses for it from the fury of the street,
Or warm torn elbow coverts.
We will sidestep, and to the final smirk
Dally the doom of that inevitable thumb
That slowly chafes its puckered index toward us,
Facing the dull squint with what innocence
And what surprise!
And what surprise it was for Hart when after answering a knock on his door he saw a friend with the great comedian himself in tow. The three spent many whimsical hours together, I'm sure. I will continue the poem at this review's conclusion. While I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Chaplin, I almost feel like I have, after seeing Richard Attenborough's film, Chaplin. Robert Downey Jr. gave an excellent performance, recreating the great comedy and character of The Little Tramp, and also providing insight into the man behind the myth.
I remember seeing Chaplin finally honored by the Academy after living in exile for so many years. There was a confused, frightened look in his eyes, as if he was afraid that he was about to be ambushed by his old nemesis, J. Edgar Hoover. He looked, as Hart Crane said in another poem, "confused among the chrysanthemums." There was also something else, the sense that his contribution was appreciated after all. He was finally getting validation. Robert Downey Jr. really captured that bittersweet moment, and all the other moments in Chaplin's life.
Chaplin's case and the memorable "Oscar Moment" reminded me of two other events at the Oscars. One was when Roman Polanski, also in exile, won Best Director for The Pianist. Compare and contrast Chaplin's case with Roman Polanski. Discuss it amongst yourselves, as I have no real point to make--only that it was oddly similar, and oddly different. Then when Elia Kazan won a Lifetime Achievement award, some people refused to stand up for his standing ovation. Nick Nolte sat there looking as grim as a Malibu mug shot. Chris Rock later commented on the incongruity between the reaction for Polanski and the one for Kazan, who had named names to HUAC. How rude of Rock, and no wonder he wasn't asked back to host, but he did have a point.
Chaplin, the film, makes a very good case that J. Edgar Hoover persecuted Chaplin, the man. There is a scene where Charlie is shown (wittily but unwittingly) planting the seeds of rancor:
J. Edgar Hoover: I have to wonder if you people realize the level of responsibility you carry. From my way of thinking, Motion Pictures are potentially the most influential form of communication ever invented. And there's no control over it. Your message reaches everyone, everywhere.
Mary Pickford: Message?
J. Edgar Hoover: Of course, Mr. Chaplin here reaches millions who only have to see; and when they see a mockery being made of our immigration services, I call that a message.
Charlie Chaplin: Yes, well, uh, as you've already said Mr. Hoover, Motion Pictures are for the people; most of the people work for a living, and they don't make much money doing it; gives them pleasure to see an official from the upper classes getting a kick up the backside. Always has, and it always will; and if that can change things, so much the better.
[in a better pronounced, less cockney voice]
Charlie Chaplin: Bet-ter.
What was it that Frank Zappa said about the reason Lenny Bruce died? And what was it Richard Nixon said to H.R. Haldeman when he heard that J. Edgar Hoover had died? Funny (again not funny ha ha) that Anthony Hopkins and James Woods, both in this film, played Nixon and Haldeman, respectively, in Oliver Stone's Nixon. And what were the final two stanzas of Hart Crane's poem, Chaplinesque? Why, look down below:
And yet these fine collapses are not lies
More than the pirouettes of any pliant cane;
Our obsequies are, in a way, no enterprise.
We can evade you, and all else but the heart:
What blame to us if the heart live on.
The game enforces smirks; but we have seen
The moon in lonely alleys make
A grail of laughter of an empty ash can,
And through all sound of gaiety and quest
Have heard a kitten in the wilderness.
Geraldine Chaplin played her own grandmother, Charlie Chaplin's mother, Hannah, who was plagued by madness. She was excellent, but what would you expect? It's in her blood. Her presence gave the whole project the Chaplin Stamp of Approval.
John Thaw was familiar to me as Inspector Morse, the title character from the British detective program. He played impresario Fred Karno, who gave Chaplin his first job, but also boorishly sabotaged his budding romance with Hetty Kelly. Akroyd was good as Mack Sennett, the man who gave Chaplin his big break in the film industry. James Woods was the 'persecuting attorney' who tried Chaplin in a bogus paternity suit. Anthony Hopkins was playing an editor, and had a utilitarian role to move the exposition along, when Chaplin was being vague about certain aspects of his personal life. A framing device. Not an actual person, a composite character.
Kevin Kline was good as Douglas Fairbanks, doing some impressive stunts, but I can see him as Cole Porter in De-Lovely, or Guy Noir in A Prairie Home Companion, but I don't see him as Douglas Fairbanks. Funny (not funny ha ha, but funny weird/strange) that in the bonus material of Prairie Home Companion his fellow thespians, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, describe him as "our generation's Chaplin." Though he played The Pirate King in a film of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, that still doesn't qualify him to play Fairbanks. A minor quibble. He did a good job, but he didn't melt into his character like Robert Downey Jr.
Moira Kelly played a dual role: both Hetty Kelly, young Charlie's first crush, and Oona O'Neill Chaplin, his last wife. I guess that was supposed to show that he was searching for that lost love of his youth. Marisa Tomei, Penelope Ann Miller, and Milla Jovovich played other women in Chaplin's life.
Bottom line is Chaplin was a very good film, successful as a biopic, and also as an historical chronicle showing the role of film and comedy in our country's history, and the intersection of politics and comedy. The Direction, Cinematography, Costumes, and Supporting Cast were all top notch. Great performance by Downey, who is a master of comedy and drama, and also not a stranger to controversy in his own life. He was perfect for this role. He could relate.
Charlie Chaplin: Nothing quite like it. The feeling of film.
A Scanner Darkly (2006) Robert Downey Jr. was James Barris
De-Lovely (2004) Kevin Kline was Cole Porter
Dangerous Beauty (1998) Moira Kelly was Beatrice Venier
Nixon - The Election Year Edition (1995) Anthony Hopkins was Richard M. Nixon and James Woods was H.R. Haldeman
Exit to Eden (1994) Dan Akroyd was Fred Lavery
Only You (1994) Robert Downey Jr. was Peter Wright and Marisa Tomei was Faith
Two Moon Junction (1988) Milla Jovovich was Samantha
A Chorus Line (1985) Directed by Sir Richard Attenborough
Doctor Zhivago (1965) Geraldine Chaplin was Tonya
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) John Thaw was Bosworth
Charlie Chaplin: If you want to understand me, watch my movies.
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Description of Chaplin
Sir Richard Attenborough's biographical film of the life and times of Charles Chaplin is a little thin as a narrative, but it is so charmingly creative and ultimately moving, it's hard to care about any deficits. Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job re-creating Chaplin's graceful slapstick and getting inside the silent-film superstar's head over many years of triumph, defeat, scandal, official persecution, exile, and inner peace. A huge cast portray the allies, friends, lovers, and enemies in Chaplin's life, including Moira Kelly as his final, longtime wife, Oona, Kevin Kline as Douglas Fairbanks, Geraldine Chaplin as Charlie's mother, and James Woods as a prosecutor working hard to nail Chaplin for anti-American sentiments. Attenborough declines to tell the story in a flat, linear way, employing such clever techniques as detailing one chapter in Chaplin's life as a silent comedy. The climactic scene set at an Oscar tribute for Chaplin will get the tears flowing. --Tom KeoghBestsellers in DVD
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