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The Circus, 1928
The impoverished Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) endures a mishap at a circus involving the police and a pickpocket, and ends up working for the circus. As he blunders through his work, he is unaware that he has become the star attraction. The Tramp pines for a circus rider (Merna Kennedy) who is mistreated by her stepfather who also happens to be the circus's ringmaster.
I've been pretty impressed by the other films I have seen from Chaplin (especially The Kid and City Lights) but this one left me a little cold. From a purely physical comedy point of view, it has several fun and memorable set-pieces. Chaplin's technical mastery and creativity is on display.
But despite really liking one specific element of the central storyline--namely the way that the Tramp not only accepts that his crush loves someone else, he actually helps them to be together--overall it just didn't grip me. Too much of the film feels like it is just walking in circles and repeating the same dynamic, just setting up one comedy sequence after another. There isn't the degree of character development that I would hope for, and the secondary characters just aren't compelling. There's also something gross about how the abused rider storyline is resolved, as she gets married and then her stepdad just can't hit her anymore. Yet no one stood up for her before that.
The comedy is there, but I didn't feel that this one had the same heart as his other films. This one seems to have a strong following and a generally positive consensus, but it never totally clicked with me.
The Circus, 1928
The impoverished Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) endures a mishap at a circus involving the police and a pickpocket, and ends up working for the circus. As he blunders through his work, he is unaware that he has become the star attraction. The Tramp pines for a circus rider (Merna Kennedy) who is mistreated by her stepfather who also happens to be the circus's ringmaster.
I've been pretty impressed by the other films I have seen from Chaplin (especially The Kid and City Lights) but this one left me a little cold. From a purely physical comedy point of view, it has several fun and memorable set-pieces. Chaplin's technical mastery and creativity is on display.
But despite really liking one specific element of the central storyline--namely the way that the Tramp not only accepts that his crush loves someone else, he actually helps them to be together--overall it just didn't grip me. Too much of the film feels like it is just walking in circles and repeating the same dynamic, just setting up one comedy sequence after another. There isn't the degree of character development that I would hope for, and the secondary characters just aren't compelling. There's also something gross about how the abused rider storyline is resolved, as she gets married and then her stepdad just can't hit her anymore. Yet no one stood up for her before that.
The comedy is there, but I didn't feel that this one had the same heart as his other films. This one seems to have a strong following and a generally positive consensus, but it never totally clicked with me.