Charlie Chaplin

[Nathan_Morrison]

What were his views/things he had done in his lifetime?

All i know is that he was moderately leftist and a comedian.

[Pirate Utopian]

I dont know much but he was obviously anti-nazi as he mocked them in The World's Greatest Dictator.
I loved that movie by the way.

[Spartacist]

My impression is that Chaplin was a man of the left, very sympathetic to communism but not much interested in theory to finally settle upon a cogent set of ideas. Fellow traveler, more interested in hanging onto his personal comforts and wealth to really go all the way.

[RebelDog]

Originally posted by [email protected] 05, 2007 03:53 am
My impression is that Chaplin was a man of the left, very sympathetic to communism but not much interested in theory to finally settle upon a cogent set of ideas. Fellow traveler, more interested in hanging onto his personal comforts and wealth to really go all the way.
I pretty much concur with that analysis. He never forgot the poorhouse. However, he didn't do his legacy any good by accepting a knighthood from the British state near the end of his life.

[gilhyle]

I would defend him a bit more than that. In the 1950s when it was verydifficult to do so, he was vigorous in his opposition to persecution of reds. His attacks on Hitler and on industrial production were iconic.

He was an amazing artist. Many of his films are quite extraordinary. And the key idea - one he shared with, for example Sean O'Casey nd jean Renoir - was the idea of sympathy for working people and awareness of the oppression they were subject to.

He was also an incredible professional - well ahead of accomplished contemporaries like Buster Keaton.

It is true that he was very well paid. His earnings in the second and third decade of the 20th century would be amzing salaries even today - without adjusting for inflation !

[Amusing Scrotum]

Some people are of the opinion that he was a member of the CPUSA -- at the very least, he was a supporter. Essentially, he was an old fashioned social-democrat.

[gilhyle]

Originally posted by Amusing [email protected] 06, 2007 04:27 pm
Some people are of the opinion that he was a member of the CPUSA -- at the very least, he was a supporter. Essentially, he was an old fashioned social-democrat.
As Marx correcty said of Heinrich Heine, it is an error to judge an artist by his party affiliations. Certainly, his sensibility was of a particular type - but that does not allow us to label his political affiliatins with any clarity. The point about him is not what party he was with but how he made his art: and the way he made his art was comendable.

[Red Flag Rising]

As Marx correcty said of Heinrich Heine, it is an error to judge an artist by his party affiliations.

Sorry to go against Marx but I am going to boost the leftist artist over the rightist anyday, everyday.

I'll go out on a limb here and admit that the capitalist Buster Keaton was far more talented than Chaplin. His stunts were incredible. But am I going to say that to a bunch of knownothings in class? Hell no. I 'm going to put Chaplin over Keaton because Chaplin was the politically conscious of the two.

[gilhyle]

Hmmm, the great artist is always better for me than the 'leftist' artist, not least because to be a left winger as an artist is incredibly difficult.

But having had the opportunity recently to watch his 1916 1917 films back to back, they are incredible. On a technical level, the choreography, the ingenuity of the stunts is amazing, story-wise the poetic sensibility of his stories of ordinary life are quite incredible. What is incredible also is the coherence of his life's work so that we see looking back how his left wing views illuminate all his work

By contrast, Keaton was doing in the 1920s what Chaplin had been doing almost ten years earlier; between the grandiose (and brilliantly done) stunts the story lags with little intellectual understanding or human sensibility.

Keaton is great, dont get me wrong, but chaplin is amazing. The left should be proud of him.

[Spartacist]

Hmmm, the great artist is always better for me than the 'leftist' artist

Well, I am a Revolutionary and my loyalty is to the Revolution and its adherents. Art should serve the Revolutionary end, or what are we all about?

Left > right, so, Chaplin > Keaton.

[Edgar]

Though not a Marxist or anything, Chaplin was very sympathetic to the plight of the working class. And the bravery he had in making a movie like The Great Dictator, while the American capitalists were still doing deals with Hitler, is something I will always respect him for.