Directed by Charlie Chaplin

Position on the list (at time of viewing): 342

This film explodes onto the scene like nothing that has ever come before. My wife and I spent most of this movie staring in slack-jawed amazement that this movie was possible after the movies that we had seen before it. This may largely be down to the absence of short comic films on the list prior to this movie. The Kid is largely an expansion on and growth from these other short films, so there didn’t seem to be much precedent for the energy and brilliance that Chaplin brings to this role and this film. It’s such an evolution of style and substance that it defies belief. Even knowing where it comes from in general, it seems miles away from the simple comic shorts and films that preceded it–edited, stylish, and brilliantly alive. It is also miles away from the stodgy epics and huge overblown dramas that ruled film before now. For a film that is barely an hour long, it so completely revolutionizes film that it is hard to believe.

Did I mention that it is still riotously funny? The film is legitimately laugh-a-minute, from some of the best physical humor up to this point to smarter social commentary and jokes that still resonate today. This is, perhaps, the best ‘first movie’ for a director on the entire list. Technically Chaplin had written, directed, and starred in many many shorts before this, but it is definitely his first feature film. The fact that he wrote, directed, starred in, edited, and even composed the soundtrack for this film is evidence of his genius. The movie (like so many Chaplin films) is sweet, funny, touching, and engaging throughout. The plot is still very slight, and deals with the mishaps that Chaplin’s Little Tramp persona gets into when he is forced into adopting a child that has been abandoned. The relationship between the incorrigible tramp and the eponymous Kid is excellent. It’s simple but incredibly heartwarming, showing the Tramp’s slow acceptance of a child that he initially avoids. Elsewhere, the child’s mother has second thoughts and the film’s conflict evolves over whether or not they will be reunited.

Like many of Chaplin’s movies, the slapstick and physical comedy is only a cover for some surprisingly insightful human commentary. It’s no accident that Chaplin chose to take on the persona of the Little Tramp in the midst of the roarin’ twenties. He legitimately had something to say about the difficulties of being down on your luck and the conflict between classes in America. While this movie is not yet operating on the near-socialist level that some of his later films would, there’s certainly a keen observational eye about how people judge someone of the Little Tramp’s place in society. Chaplin, like many other filmmakers of the time, is working in allegorical territory, leaving names off of his characters (“The Woman,” “The Kid,” “A Tramp,” etc.) in order to attain a universality for the story he tells. It’s truly heartwarming to see one person coming to care for another, and this movie has that in spades. Even modern viewers will truly feel for the tramp as he tries to keep hold of the child whom he has come to love.

This is not, however, our first four-star film, and that comes down primarily to its ending. Most of the criticism I can find for this film considers its surreal, dream-like ending one of its greatest strengths, but it just does not work for me. Without spoiling, the movie ends with an extended dream sequence while the Little Tramp sleeps on his doorstep. It completely abandons the plot for a significant portion of the film’s running time for a series of bizarre and surreal gags and pratfalls. The beginning is so honest and real in its depiction of poverty that I can’t help but feel like the sudden left turn detracts from what comes before. There is no doubt of the technical brilliance of the end. It’s a setpiece on par with some of the most daring scenes yet filmed, but from a narrative perspective it doesn’t win me over. I would have much rather had the simple, straightforward brilliance of the beginning of the film extended. The masterful but emotionally empty (from my perspective at least) ending we get is funny but falls short of the emotion the rest of the movie evokes. If Chaplin had stuck the landing (as he absolutely will a bit down the line), this movie might have been his greatest. As it is, it’s still up there as one of my favorite silent movies, but falls short of perfection.

Overall: