The Movie
Back in his guise of The Little Tramp, Charlie Chaplin is The Lone Prospector caught up in The Gold Rush, off to the Alaskan wilderness to find his fortune like so many other eager fellows. He soon meets up with a couple of burly ore-seekers, one gruff-but-big-hearted and the other mean as a snake, and his comedic adventures begin.
The movie is a showcase for some of the multitalented star's absolute best physical comedy, combining a simple but solid plot with thrills, scares, a smidgen of romance and always sympathy for the underdog. The disc defaults to the Chaplin-preferred 1942 re-release edition, re-cut and reworked with a new musical score and new spoken narration in lieu of title cards, created to address the waning interest in silent films in the burgeoning era of talkies. Frankly I would compare this decision to George Lucas' on the Star Wars re-dos, subject to his own very personal bias and agenda, in this case attempting to boost his relevance to a new generation of ticket buyers. The narration is at times unnecessarily explicit, with the effect of taking us out of the story, reminding us repeatedly that we are on the outside looking in. Fortunately, the original 1925 version is supplied here as well...
The Picture
...But that version--which was exhibited around the world and back again for years, and later cannibalized for purposes of the redux--comes with a "work in progress" disclaimer, owing to the many drastic shifts in quality of the 4:3 black-and-white image throughout, as disparate elements came together to approximate the original release. Both versions here come from new high-definition masters created from duplicate negatives, and each is subject to its share of weave, edge enhancement and physical damage. Combining both versions on a single disc does lead to some visible evidence of compression, with some video noise but minimal conspicuous film grain.
Shadow detail is generally quite strong here, and we can appreciate the varying level of dirt and wear on the characters' garb, for example.
The Sound
The 1942 re-cut is paired with Linear PCM 1.0 audio, while the 1925 edition packs DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, each version seeking to recreate the authentic moviegoing experience, but in a different way. The 1942 narration/music track was a simple mono, presented here in a single high-resolution channel. The 1925 showings would likely have been accompanied by a live musical performance, surrounding and enveloping the audience as the music-only multichannel mix (recorded in 2011) does here.
Both have been remastered and digitally spruced for Blu-ray, with the high strings in particular reproducing cleanly.
The Extras
Exclusive to the 1925 original is a new audio commentary by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance, indexed by topic. A new 16-minute featurette puts the differences between the two versions plus the production itself into perspective. Visual effects practitioner and expert Craig Barron exposes the optical illusions employed for Gold Rush in another segment (19 minutes), while composer/conductor Timothy Brock discusses Chaplin's musical talents, and his own efforts in reconstructing the scores during a new on-camera interview (25 minutes). All of these new featurettes are in HD.
Ported from DVD is an excellent 27-minute "making of" program from 2002, including plenty of interviews, rare footage and clips. A collection of four international trailers is also provided, from England, France, Germany and The Netherlands.
Final Thoughts
Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush still tickles the funnybone and tugs the heartstrings, 70 (or 87, depending) years later, while Criterion has now given us two distinct and technically impressive ways to watch, illuminating a fascinating chapter in silent movie history along the way.
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