This is the 1992 biography movie based on the life of Charles Chaplin. It is extraordinary. At the end of the movie I was sobbing.

Charles Chaplin started out life as a boy in London, with an absent Dad and a Mother who kept getting carted off to an insane asylum. Charles was sent to the the work house when he was a lad and he survived that and ended up on the London stage at a very young age. With a natural instinct for comedy, he was a hit, so much so that he ventured to America to find fame and fortune.

In 1913, he saw his first movie and never looked back. He became the number one film star in the world and this lasted for almost 4 decades.

He was a brave and outspoken soul, speaking out against J. Edgar Hoover to Hoover's face, which resulted in a lifelong Hoover vendetta against Chaplin, capitalizing on Chaplin's penchant for much younger women. Chaplin also spoke up against the Nazi's to Nazis who came to Hollywood in such a way that he was added to Hitler's lengthy deathlist, especially after lampooning Hitler in the 1940 movie, The Great Dictator. Hoover forced Chaplin to remain out of the country for most of the final years of his life. He lived in Switzerland with his family until the end, returning to Hollywood to receive an honorary Oscar in the 1970's.

Charles Chaplin was a brilliant, complicated man and Robert Downey plays him in a flawless performance. I thought for a time that I was looking at the real Chaplin.

anyone interested in this amazing life. Charlie Chaplin was the first Hollywood guy to do it all - act, direct, produce, write and write the music and star in his movies.

learning more about Chaplin. And Kevin Kline and Dan Akroyd are quite good as Douglas Fairbanks and Max Sennett.

Also, Geraldine Chaplin (Chaplin's daugher with Oona O'Neill) plays her own grandmother, (Charles Chaplin's mother) in this, which is a little strange and kind of chilling.

is fabulous. Diane Lane is in it and the whole cast is excellent. Many of the cast went on to do other fine work.

I love the song, "Smile" that Chaplin wrote for "Modern Times" and they use that music a lot. I learned that the lyrics to "Smile" were written later by Nat King Cole, but that melody is heartbreaking.

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Created Jan 22, 2015 at 2:54pm • Submit your own review...