I thoroughly enjoyed this autobiography by Charlie Chaplin in his own words. It's an interesting and intriguing read about his life from his own perspective and first-hand knowledge of events that you cannot get from any biography. With him being a film maker, his writing style keeps you very interested and engrossed from beginning to finish. He truly lived a remarkable life. I love his very matter of fact way of presenting the events in his life. It definitely puts everything that happened to him in perspective.
I especially loved reading the parts about him going unrecognized dressed as himself. He was humbled when he first found out how popular he truly was. He went unrecognized on a train until it became known he was on the train. He was even the last in line for the washroom and waited in line like everyone else. There was another time when he was in NY that a cab driver drove him around all night looking for a hotel. He was trying to avoid people at his hotel but all the hotels were full. The cab driver, not recognizing him, invited him to stay with him and his family. Charlie hesitated but decided to trust him. The cab driver and his family were very surprised and happy to have him stay there as their guest. The accommodations were humble but better than what he had as a boy in London so he didn't complain.
As for the scandal in his life, he talks about it in a very matter of fact way. Even he admitted he wasn't a total angel. However, hearing it from his side, shame on the US press, legal system, and government for the way they treated him. He did not deserve that! With his first 2 divorces, his young naive wives were manipulated by greedy lawyers who just saw dollar signs. So they dragged his name through the mud and scandalized the whole thing to get as much out of him as they could. The Joan Barry trial and family court hearings were used by the FBI to try to tarnish his name further. He was thankfully cleared of all criminal charges. However, in family court, he wasn't so lucky. Blood tests proved he wasn't the father of Joan Barry's child; but they were inadmissible in court at that time. Therefore, with circumstantial evidence alone, he was ruled as the father and had to pay child support. Unbelievable! Today Joan Barry would have had stalking and harassment charges brought against her. What a nut!
The Communist accusations were a huge miscarriage of justice. He was not a Communist aka enemy of the US. If he had joined a US political party, I believe he would have been a Liberal Democrat. He may have associated with Communists, but that's guilt by association. He had fans and friends who were Communists before it was considered a dirty word. And he didn't believe in snubbing them when it did become a dirty word. Charlie was a humanitarian. Nothing more! He wanted to help people and help make the world a better place by pulling down barriers. He promoted peace and pointed out the evils in this world to try to get people thinking about them. His hope was perhaps they would see the evils and do something to change things for the better. Nothing wrong with that. His films are still relevant today because they are about human nature. The reason they are so hilarious is because there is so much truth in them, even today. As he put it (paraphrasing), the only thing he was guilty of was being a nonconformist. Amen to that! He was a rebel. I admire that about him because I'm a bit of a rebel myself. It took a lot of courage for him to speak the truth.
I'm just glad he was finally vindicated of all of this 20 years after he left the US. He received a lifetime achievement Academy Award in 1972 and was invited to the US to receive that award. However, this autobiography was written prior to that happening. Also, when the FBI files were released to the public 50 years later, there was no evidence found that proved he was a Communist either. Despite this, it just saddens and infuriates me that he was treated so poorly. Just imagine how many more films he might have made if he hadn't gone through all that. His three films after The Great Dictator were either boycotted or banned in the US for years. They are real gems! Great films that I am so glad I had the opportunity to watch and own copies of them.
After reading about his near death experiences, he definitely had someone looking out for him. He had a sixth sense about his safety, even as a child, and had some near misses. That explains why he was an agnostic. With the experiences he had, he had to believe there was a higher power out there. He was saved, I believe, because he had a purpose. His movies speak for themselves in this case. He spoke the truth and gave laughter and hope when there was none.
He was not only a great comedian, but also a great visionary and artist who had the courage to pave his own path and not conform to society's norms. Because of this, his movies will remain relevant for many years to come.
SIR CHARLES SPENCER “CHARLIE” CHAPLIN was born in 1889 in London to impoverished parents. He began performing at age ten as a member of a juvenile clog-dance troupe. In 1913, while he was touring with a vaudeville act in the US, Keystone films recruited Chaplin to make films. In only his second short—Kid Auto Races at Venice—he debuted his “Little Tramp” character, and his fame quickly exploded. He went on to write, direct, and star in some of the most critically acclaimed movies ever made, including the classics The Gold Rush, City Lights, The Great Dictator, Monsieur Verdoux, and Modern Times—for which he also wrote the song “Smile,” still a standard. In 1919 he founded the United Artists film studio along with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith, and in 1929, the first year of the Academy Awards, he won an award for “versatility and genius” in The Circus. But Chaplin’s career took a dark turn during the McCarthy era, when he was accused of “un-American activities” and monitored by the FBI; he would later satirize the McCarthy committee in his A King in New York, but when he visited the UK in 1952 his re-entry permit to the US was revoked. Objecting to what he described as “lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups”, he moved with his family to Switzerland, where he would live until his death on Christmas day 1977.
DAVID ROBINSON is a film critic and author and a biographer of Charlie Chaplin. His Chaplin: His Life and Art is regarded as the definitive book on the subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment