Chase Gorland
Humanities 101
Prof. Coffman
9.8.10

    Film Review of ‘The Kid’
    Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’ is exceptional not only for its success in being humorous despite the limitations of the silent film as a medium, but also for the social commentary which has been woven in through the film’s plot and symbolism.  
    The fact that Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’ was made during the prosperous 20’s preceding the great depression, rather than after the market crash, demonstrates Chaplin’s level of foresight regarding the moral significance of poverty and society’s response to it.  Throughout the film Chaplin’s character ‘the tramp’ and his adopted son were pursued by the authorities, whether police or orphanage officials, who were more interested in preventing the impoverished from acting out rather than addressing that which drove them to do so.  This was most directly symbolized by the doctor Chaplin’s character called to help his sick child.  Instead of devoting substantive effort towards treating the boy, the doctor becomes preoccupied with paperwork and later with contacting the orphanage authorities given the tramp’s financial troubles.
    The tramp’s dream following the police’s apprehension of the boy also seems symbolic of a moral conflict relating to the tramp and his neighborhood.  At this point in the story, the tramp seems to have lost hope, so he escapes to a pleasant fantasy in which his neighborhood is restored, its inhabitants are angelic, and he has been reunited with the boy.  This fantasy serves the purpose of highlighting the tramp’s standard of an ideal world in which he is not impoverished, does not have to struggle against his neighbors, and the orphanage authorities have not taken away the boy.  This fantasy is oddly twisted by devils representing vice, who distract the tramp and another women with lust.  
    Oddly following this dream is an abrupt deus ex machina ending, in which he is reunited with the boy and welcomed into the home of the wealthy women philanthropist.  This ending initially seems out of place with the film’s grim setting, despite its lighthearted plot, as everything is set right by the same external forces of chance and the government that originally created the problem.  The importance of the philanthropic mother of the boy in bringing about this ending, however, demonstrates its overall message that if the powerful were to take notice of the plight of the poor and personally help, they could mend peoples’ lives.  This ending reinforces the first good deed which launched the story--the tramp’s reluctant decision to raise the boy--an act of a comparably powerful person helping a helpless one.  In this way, the ending is suited to the rest of the plot as it proposes that if everyone was to rise to this duty, each could expect it to be reciprocated by another.