Wednesday, September 19, 2007

"Tramp"-ling On Artistic Freedom

I don’t know if anyone is going to care about this but me, but I’m posting about it anyway.

As this BBC News link tells us, 55 years ago today, Charlie Chaplin was denied entry back into the United States by the immigration service (he was sailing on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner with his family when he received the news – the fine film “Chaplin” with Robert Downey Jr. portrays this as taking place while he was still in New York Harbor.)

As the BBC story tells us…

Charlie Chaplin has been under severe pressure in the US over accusations from Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee that he is associated with left-wing causes.

Mr Chaplin has been on the FBI's Security Index since 1948, and he was one of over 300 people blacklisted by Hollywood film studios and unable to work after he refused to cooperate when he appeared before the Committee.

When questioned about his membership of the Communist Party, Mr Chaplin answered, "I do not want to create any revolution, all I want to do is create a few more films.

"I might amuse people. I hope so."
Chaplin had some legendary conflicts with J. Edgar Hoover over his left-wing and borderline-communist political sympathies, and though his films were not overtly political until the 1940s (as the Wikipedia article notes), they started to take on more and more of a “message” quality the more he departed from his “Little Tramp” character (including the impact of mechanization in our lives depicted in the scene from “Modern Times” above, but more notably, the stirring speech at the end of “The Great Dictator” – I don’t think WeShow still has that one). That was the beginning of the trouble that led to his banishment from this country (unfairly, in my humble opinion, though there was that particularly nasty business with Joan Berry also – catastrophic bad judgment as far as I can tell).

In addition to watching many of Chaplin’s movies and other productions related to his life and work, I also once read a biography of Chaplin written by Kenneth S. Lynn which, though it was well-researched and interesting, was unduly harsh in my opinion. Sure, Chaplin was an egomaniac of historic proportions, and his relationships with women would make even a serial adulterer blush. And I am not at all unsure that he didn’t think the immigration action that took place in 1952 would happen and prepared himself for it and his eventual permanent relocation to Vevey, Switzerland.

But though he made some true clunkers later in his life and career (“A Countess From Hong Kong” was utterly painful), I think he was also one of the finest movie makers who ever lived, and I think Lynn dwelled on the personal travails of Chaplin’s life at the expense of that legacy.

And though there was no Patriot Act or FISA (gutted to the point where it means nothing as of now) in existence in this country when he lived and worked here, there was still a pervasive fear among men and women in the arts concerning censorship and self-expression (echoed today of course).

Chaplin tried to fight that in his films, as nearly as I can recall, either through outwitting a cop in the ghetto or a boat officer trying to manage an unruly crowd awaiting immigrant processing at Ellis Island, since they represented symbols of authority (all situations that his audience could relate to).

So just remember – when we ridicule those who oppress us, we’re carrying on in the spirit of Charlie Chaplin and other men and women who rebelled against nonsensical rules and an oppressive bureaucracy.

And somewhere, I’m sure that makes The Tramp smile.

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