Chaplin

Chaplin
By Peter John Gardner

Some people out there were born to do what they do. It's hard to imagine hearing the voice of Aretha Franklin or Thom Yorke and not think that they were born to sing. Kurt Vonnegut and Ernest Hemingway were born to write and Charlie Chaplin was born to entertain. Starting in his early childhood, he was already memorizing songs to sing and devising characters to make us laugh. After watching the film version of Chaplin's life, I now firmly believe that Robert Downey Jr. was born to act. Downey doesn't so much portray Charles Chaplin. It's more like he was possessed by the man himself. Everything from the drunken man routine, to Chaplin's famous character 'The Tramp', to Chaplin himself Downey nails. With 'The Tramp' makeup on, it's easy to forget that it's not actually Chaplin we're watching.

Downey isn't the only actor that brought his A-game to the film. He surrounded by an excellent supporting cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Dan Aykroyd, Kevin Kline, Moira Kelly, Marisa Tomei, Milla Jovovich, James Woods, and David Duchovney in the only role that I've seen him play where he's not obsessed with sex and/or aliens. Everyone involved does a phenomenal job as the people that shaped Charlie Chaplin's life.

The story of Chaplin's life is framed using an elderly Chaplin discussing the details of his autobiography to his publisher/ghostwriter. Chaplin's life story is quite remarkable. After making a name for himself in British theater, Chaplin is recruited to America to work in the blossoming moving picture industry. We see the development of Chaplin's most famous characters and Charles's own entrepreneurship as he starts making movies himself. Along the way, Charlie courts and fails with a number of lovers, is branded a Communist sympathizer by the US government (damn liberal Hollywood!), and eventually moves back to England out of frustration and disgust with the government's communist witchhunt.

Some followup research proved that some elements in the movie were dramatized, which is to be expected, but there was one scene in particular I thought was written specifically for the film that turned out to be completely factual. At the age of five, Chaplin's mother fell ill during a musical number at a theater. To quell the angry masses in the crowd, Charlie himself went up there and finished the song and dance. Born entertainer.

At the age of 28, I'm still trying to figure out what Peter Gardner was born to do. I tried sports and various other hobbies growing up and quickly lost interest in them. I'll admit that I'm a nerd and that books and video games interested me more as a youth, but when I reached that crucial age at the end of high school where everyone starts asking you what do you want to do with your life, I couldn't think of a good answer. I would look at schools and potential fields of study and just shrug my shoulders. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I figured that the standard two years of general education courses would enlighten me.

After I completed those courses and received my AA degree, I took a break from school to work full time while I figured out what I wanted to do next because at that point, I still had no idea. There were areas that I was better at than others like Computer Science, English, and History, but none of them tickled my fancy enough to want to pursue a career in that field. I eventually settled on getting a degree in English/Creative Writing because that is arguably what I do best. Was I born to write? I doubt that. Was I born to teach? I don't think so. One thing I do know is that I was born to do something or else I wouldn't be here. Maybe I was born just to endure all of Stallone and Downey's films. What a life.