The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: Laughter and tears
Summary: 5 Stars
Chaplin is a rare gem. I don't give five stars lightly, and I don't give them to praise old respected classics. Citizen Kane deserved less. A Buster Keaton silent film was nothing compared to Chaplin. He makes you laugh and cry. What more could you ask for in a movie?
There are some similarities to another Chaplin gem, City Lights. He liked to put comic boxing scenes in his movies. He also liked beautiful and loving women. And the cops are always bad guys giving the tramp a hard time.
The Kid, the title character, is very cute, and very well played by Jackie Coogan. He helps to make it a precious film, and I mean that only in a good sense.
I like happy endings too, and Chaplin is happy to oblige. But one thing I'd really like to see is the sequel to this one, to see how the lives of the three main characters develop.
This film is so far superior to almost every movie coming out today. And I'm not one to praise the old simply because it is old. If an old movie is terrible, I'll say so. But this movie right here is far superior to almost every movie in the theatres right now.
Movie Review: EXCELLENT CHAPLIN FILM - THE BEST BY ALL ACCOUNTS
Summary: 5 Stars
take a look at this film. The extras are unnecessary. Even back then the state could take a kid away from a loving and kind caretaker, but mainly because they were swindling people by breaking windows. BUt hey it was a living and keeping stacks of pancakes on the table.
THe state back then was beatable. Not anymore, and the two are reunited. THis film is really great, but would likely be condemned as kiddie pern nowadays when we no longer give our kids a kiss goodnight or share a cot, or sacrifice all to care for them.
Especially interesting in this film is something unique at the time to Chaplin: the depiction of passing African American characters without racial jokes, but reality. CHaplin is almost alone in this. Stepin Fetchit was making a good penny with racist depictions of Black people. Chaplin dares present real people with wiles and intelligence.
Check out this movie. It has all the classic Chaplin bits, plus the incredible Jackie Coogan (later TV's Uncle Fester) under Chaplin's fine direction. Well-written. Not too much bathos and sentiment and melodrama but just enough to keep things moving. THe scene where the mother and the kid unknowingly see each other at a doorstep is great and classical irony, not overdone. IT must have been a scream in a movie theatre long ago.
You must get this movie. Then get A King in New York to see how the elder Chaplin directed his own son as well years later.
Movie Review: A masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
In an era when silent films were cranked out quickly and were far from an art form, Chaplin decided to take a new approach. Although this film started out as another short film, by the time it was done, Chaplin had spent a year on it, and had taken more shots and retakes than perhaps had been done for any film in history. By completion, it had grown into a six reel feature film.
I hesitate to use the word artistry, because it sounds like one of those words used for films that only critics tend to appreciate. But this film is both artistic and accessible. If you are not used to silent films, or the ones you have seen either lacked continuity or were hard to follow, you will find this as easy to watch as any modern film, and find that it tells a story as well as the best of films.
This edition features the musical score written by Chaplin, which underscores both the comedy and the drama of this movie. A host of features on the second DVD give you a feel for the background and the era.
If you are a Chaplin fan, this movie is a must have. If you are not a Chaplin fan, but are curious what all the fuss is about, this movie will let you know.
Movie Review: Chaplin's first masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
This was Chaplin's first feature-length film, and it's a beautiful work of art. Chaplin is the tramp who finds an abandoned baby in an alley with a note attached pleading for the finder to care for and love the child. Some inventive scenes of Charlie learning the rudiments of baby care follow, and then it jumps ahead five years. Jackie Coogan is now the kid and it was not only his greatest role, but perhaps the best appearance on screen of any child star until Tatum O'Neill in PAPER MOON; he might also be the best character Chaplin ever worked with. Coogan throws rocks through windows while Chaplin, a glazier, appears on the scene to make repairs: it's a living. In one astonishing scene, officials from the county orphanage come to take the kid away, and Charlie puts up a fight to keep him - racing over rooftops to catch up with the truck with Coogan inside until Chaplin leaps into the truck and rescues him: it's a brilliant piece of moviemaking and was copied a thousand times in westerns with a horse replacing the truck. There is a dream sequence near the end that is very strange and somehow seems out of place. But the movie is a great one. It took one whole year to make at a time when Chaplin was cranking out two-reelers by the week for National and Essenay.
Movie Review: Wonderful edition of The Kid
Summary: 5 Stars
This MK2 edition of The Kid has to be the best available. Beautiful picture quality and great extras, the best in my opinion being another silent starring Jackie: My Boy (1921), which I like as much as The Kid (despite its being completely silent, even devoid of a musical score). All in all, a great package and worth every cent of its price.