The Tramp

'The Tramp' is Charles Chaplin's first great cinematic achievement. Not only because here we see The Little Tramp first time in the way the audiences love him now but it is a very well put together movie overall. The story is great and the setting up of the scenes is good. While watching Chaplin's works (almost) chronologically it is good to see how he progresses - leaving the rough slapstick out and concentrating more on the storytelling and the subtlety of the visual gags. One can say that 'The Tramp' is a milestone in Charles Chaplin's career.

Charlie plays a tramp, who, after saving a farmer's daughter from thieves, is given a job on the farm as a reward. Charlie later manages to thwart the same bandits who try to rob the farm, but he is accidently shot in the process by the farmer. Charlie basks in the attention of the farmer, and his daughter, until the girl's boyfriend arrives. Knowing he doesn't have a chance with the girl anymore, Charlie leaves, walking down the road alone.

"The Tramp" was made for Essanay, who gave Chaplin his second film contract in as many years and much greater creative freedom than he previously enjoyed under Mack Sennett at Keystone. Despite claims to the contrary, this film was not introduction of Chaplin's famous tramp character. That character was actually born in Chaplin's second film for Keystone "Kid Auto Races in Venice." This film was, however, an important step in the development of the tramp as a character, and for Chaplin as an artist. With his failed attempt to win the girl and his final walk, with his back to us, down the road, Chaplin made his first serious attempt to inject pathos and genuine human emotion into his comedies. In "The Tramp," he was laying the groundwork for future masterpieces like "The Circus."

Sadly, aside from the dramatic elements, this isn't one of Chaplin's best shorts. The comedy isn't very original. He simply takes advantage of various barnyard props for the rough, rather mindless knockabout brand of slapstick he would soon evolve away from. This isn't a terrible comedy by any means, it probably as good if not better than the bulk of the comedies produced that year by his contemporaries. It simply doesn't live up to the standard he would set for himself over the next two years at the Mutual Company.

Fans should definitely watch if they get the chance, but it isn't a good place for the uninitiated to start.

Chaplin's favorite character and one of the world's most indelible images is introduced in this movie, The tramp. Chaplin also sets up the theme that recurs in all of his best movies, the thing that man will do for love, whether real or imagined. It is a well known fact, that man is essentially a slave to woman, to her whims, fantasies, and urgings. It is what creates the love that is often opaque in the brusqueness and machoism that beguiles the maturity of man. Chaplin knew this and studied and exacerbated it in his movies, id est to ask the question; What is a man? What is a man without a woman? The yin and yang of the two creates humanity, so to speak. In this movie, he rescues a farmer's daughter from a bunch of thugs, and is brought by the woman home to the farm where he gets a job from her father. He stays because he loves the woman but does she love him? The melancholy of this movie eschews the laughs for the audience and the ordeals that Chaplin endures for her approval. A funny and touching movie.

This is the short feature in which Chaplin introduced his famous "Tramp" character, and it would be worth watching for that alone. The character is pretty well-defined, and is already recognizable as the one who would appear in many later films. The movie itself is pretty good, although not one of Chaplin's best, and it features the kinds of material that Chaplin would soon afterward learn to film as well as anyone of his time.

The story takes "The Tramp" through a series of events, from his desperate efforts to scratch up some food, to finding a sympathetic family, to facing up to his lot in life. It has some good comic moments, a little bit of excitement, and also some worthwhile thoughtful moments, just as in all of Chaplin's best movies. Here, the main thing keeping it from being better is that the best material is interspersed with some more routine sequences.

On the whole, there's certainly enough to make it worth watching in itself, and it is also one that all Chaplin fans will want to see so that they can watch the origins of Charlie's trademark role.

Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp will appear in his movies for the next 25 years as America's favorite movie star. More than just a comical character. Chaplin creates his own world, but reacts to events. He belongs to the 19th century in his ideas. But in the early 20th century, in his films, he plays the little man against the malevolent odds. The outsider fighting oppressive villains. He was the comedy of expression, specializing in minute perfection and precision. He alternated comedy and evoked pity and compassion.

The Tramp symbolized a certain class in early 20th century society.