Being such a fresh fan of movies, please forgive me that I only watched City Lights about 2 days ago. I was aware of Charles Chaplin’s greatness but the only Chaplin’s movie that I’ve seriously watched is The Great Dictator. If you want to get mad with me, please know that at least I’ve got The Great Dictator original DVD. While The Great Dictator enlightened me of how versatile Sir Chaplin is, it was City Lights that made me realized that Sir Chaplin is the one of the rarest individual that is able to make something or someone so insignificant to look like a timeless hero that is able to catch our hearts and mind while at the same time, relating it to everyone about our own fears and insecurities, the thirst for recognition and acknowledgement of existing in the planet.
City Lights was directed, produced, composed, acted and many more roles of Chaplin himself. Produced during the booming industry of sound movie, Chaplin went back to basic by making this movie a silent one with a quite minimal narration. The only significant dialogue is just some gibberish made by the Mayor and the Lady at the first scene of announcing the city’s proud statues, that our beloved hero, The Tramp made them his shelter tent.
The story introduced us to three central characters, The Tramp, the hero whom was the laughing stock of the city, even the newspaper boy poked fun at him and he was hopelessly in love with the blind girl, acted by the so beautiful Virginia Cherill (I seriously mesmerized when I first saw her) whom was a flower seller girl and living in a heavily debt house with her grandmother. Then we have the millionaire, the linkage of Tramp’s and Flower girl’s ideal dream, a lonely man who found solace in the Tramp’s hand when he is drunk. The story started when the Tramp saw the Blind Girl for the first time and immediately fell in love with her and that night he saved the millionaire from committing suicide and the scene was deliciously crafted with unforgettable scene. Through his meeting with the millionaire, the Tramp finally felt that he is worth courting the Blind Girl and through a mishap of a dance party, boxing and robbery, the story ended with one of the most touching moment ever made for film. Unless you are some cold-blooded b**ch or made of stone, you will end the movie with a big puppy eyes and smile on your face.
The magic of this movie not only lies within the story and the excellent performance by Sir Chaplin, it is within the details of everybody step of the storyboard. Never before in my life that I felt that a movie was planned so meticulously frame by frame and step by step. Silent movie requires a great detail on movement due to it is the main rail to get the story across. Being a comedy genre, silent movie nearly eliminates the existence of sarcasm line or any punch line so the choice of comedy is slapstick which is quite frankly the genre that is not in my list of favorite. But when it’s Chaplin, even my not so favorite genre was a hit again and again, through the course of the movie. Notably during dancing and boxing scene, the scenes were shot like a train ride, each act was like a stop to laugh station 1 then proceed to the next laugh station. Everything is so coordinated beautifully and we can see how committed Sir Chaplin to make this movie a perfect laugh. Nothing was repeated too much and each slapstick acts were topped by the funnier slapstick each time. Not to mention the background music of course composed by Sir Chaplin that added tunes to the film.
But the key of City Lights lies within the ability of Sir Chaplin to connect with the characters especially the Tramp. From the Tramp, Chaplin demonstrated the basic needs of a human regardless of what status or form, the need for comfort, recognition and confidence to be worthy of someone he or she loves. We saw how simple the Tramp lived his life before his encounter with the Blind Girl and the Millionaire and after that; we saw a depth of his character. A man who wanted to leave a mark on someone’s heart to remind him that he was worthwhile. While he was struggling with his esteem issues, the Tramp taught us the most powerful lesson in love throughout the movie, that sacrifices is the companion to true love. And also the sacrifices are not to be reminded with because the true meaning of sacrifice is not to relive it over and over again but to make sure it comes for the greater good.
In the word of George Bernard Shaw, another genius that had spoken “Charles Chaplin is the only genius that is ever produced by Hollywood” all I can say is Chaplin does not exist because of Hollywood, it is Hollywood that exist because of Chaplin and with that I definitely cannot score this movie due to my humbleness of this great masterpiece.
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