I'm just an 18 year old dude in high school that was assigned this movie in a class at my school. When I first saw the genres of this movie I was not looking forward to it at all. It was the first silent movie I was seeing and also the oldest. It had originally seemed like everything I didn't look for in a "good" movie. At the conclusion of this movie I knew that my original thought process was entirely wrong. This movie has certainly changed my view on both silent and older films, especially on a comedic standpoint. There was so much about it that was appealing to the viewer. I recommend this movie to all looking to expand their film genres of interest.

Then came the dawn, and with it one of the standout scenes in any silent movie as the cabin teeters on the brink. There are so many elements in this film, elements that would be reused and recombined in various presentations over the years and on so many occasions - the gold standard.

Endearing and adorable Charlie Chaplin - a genuinely pioneering prospector.

... in which Chaplin tried to modernize The Gold Rush by taking out the title cards, adding narration which he himself did, changing the music, and deleting some scenes. It isn't bad since Chaplin himself redid it, but I just prefer the original.

It isn't as funny as The Kid, not as heartbreaking as City Lights, and it doesn't have the social commentary of Modern Times. Instead it has a little bit of everything plus lots of atmosphere AND it takes Chaplin's Little Tramp out of some anonymous urban environment and lands him in a very specific place and time - the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s. I could feel the biting cold, the hunger, the loneliness. And in spite of this being set in the 1890s and seeming quite authentic to its setting, this film has a very modern feel to it, almost timeless.

Chaplin's "little fellow" is introduced as a lone prospector. We never see him doing any prospecting, but it is later mentioned that he is not very successful at it and gives it up. The first part of the film has the little fellow waiting out a blizzard in a cabin with a wanted criminal in addition to a fellow prospector. The second part has Chaplin's character traveling to a Klondike boom town, watching a cabin for a more successful prospector, and falling in love with a dance hall girl who thinks his crush is just a big joke, at least at first.

I don't think it was Chaplin's best silent film, but it does manage to do all aspects of the production very well and I can see why some people would judge it as his best. And if that was Chaplin in that chicken suit, all I can say is that he had the motions of a chicken down pat. To know what I'm talking about, watch and find out.