A comparison of Fritz Lang's two different darkness!

Fritz Lang (1890-1976)

"Master of the Darkness," remarked by the British Film Institute, was dedicated to an Austrian-American Film director and producer, Fritz Lang (British Film Institute, 2009) . He was born in Vienna, in 1890 and had grown up by the influences of the German Expressionist building era. He especially developed the ideology of film Noir genre with the use of heavy expressionistic cinematography and psychological paranoia (influenced by Sigmund Freud). Out of his remarkable works, there are the two expressionist movies that I want to compare; "The Metropolis" (1927) and his first talking picture movie "M" (1931), both which were written together by Fritz Lang and his wife, Thea Von Harbou. With the analysis in cinematography to compare these two movies, I would like to further explain about them specifically on mise-se-scene, narrative structure and expressionism in them.

1) Metropolis (1927)

Starring

Alfred Abel Brigitte Helm Gustav Fröhlich Rudolf Klein-Rogge

Plot: The movie was set in the time of 2026 when the time of extreme industrialization would be developed, and resulting two drastically different classes of civilization; the city of the riches and the workers. When the son of a rich owner of the industry fell in love by at first sight with a young woman Maria, from the workers' city, he left his upper status and went deep down into the workers' places. Meanwhile, a scientist was working on a robotic project for the industry owner, and eventually created another humanoid robot of Maria. That finally turned out to be an evil witch and destructed the whole system of the industry and the workers' city.

Mise-se-scene

   

     This is the the abstract shot from this movie "Metropolis", where the son went down into the workers' city and found Maria preaching and comforting the exhausted workers.

There is a dominant contrast to attract our eyes (and Freder, the son's eyes) towards Maria to create an angel-like appearance through a juxtaposition with lights and darkness. Also, the color of the rest of the workers was wearing all black and only Maria is wearing white that draws out the attention most. The lighting style is very perceived with studio sets and the key was very low lighting to create shadows and darkness, to make the audience to expect a mystery and horror throughout the movie. And most obviously, this low angle shot up to Maria  points out the importance being of a person among the fellow workers.

Expressionist effects

Fritz Lang used expressionist style of lighting throughout the whole movie in Metropolis. Especially, with the effect of chiaroscuro, which is the technique of using extremely low key and high contrast lighting styles in most black and white movie, he created 'Metropolis' to be a successful film Noir. Besides, the costume designs had also made this movie very expressionistic. For example, the uniform black costumes for every single industry worker to express the lack of uniqueness, individuality and personality in them. They were like some kind of robots hired to work and sacrifice their lives in the industry to run the business. On the other hand, the very extraordinary costumes worn by the upper class of the people expressed they were like angels and gods lived in their own paradise. But most of all, the settings itself to display the background is the obvious part of expressionism. The use of unrealistic vehicles, demons like machines, skyscrapers and all futurist technology, that indeed made us imagine to be like in a very industrialized future.

  

Narrative Structure

The movie started with showing of the extreme futuristic style of the civilization in the Metropolis city; such as the modern buildings and skyscrapers, the vehicles and sky roads. On top of one of the industrial buildings, Freder and his friends were having leisure time with so many luxury things on earth, pointing out the flawless and perfect lifestyle of the upper class of the society. There were no such things that he needs as he can just get 'anything' he wants, until he met Maria coming up to his place from the workers' city. It is like Joseph Campbell's call to the adventure for Freder. He was so interested in Maria that finally he decided himself to go through this Odyssey down into the workers' city. 

While he was visiting Maria, he was so in shock to see the ugliness and horrifying truth of the lives of the workers that he didn't even hear about it before. He did not know what to do while facing this obstacle but just returned back to his father to stop the running industry. The climax broke down when Evil Maria robot urging the workers to destroy the machinery (that would later flood the workers' city).  In order to save the misunderstanding but massive furious workers, Freder was not afraid to go against them to stop them by explaining. Then, he also went further down into the drowning city to save his Maria and the children.

2) M (1931)

Starring

Peter Lorre                   Otto Wernicke Gustaf Gründgens Ellen Widmann Inge Landgut Theodor Loos  Friedrich Gnass

Plot: There was someone unknown who was murdering the children in Berlin. The Police got informed by the victim citizens and they were so thrilled to catch the murderer intensely. This harsh search by the cops through the public places, clubs and bars actually started to make the other 'normal' criminals blocked to continue their crimes or illegal works. Thus, to catch the murderer as soon as possible either by the cops or the criminals was a very important matter to handle. The word, 'M' was used in a very powerful artistic technique of a 'sign' to indicate the real murderer in town!

Mise-se-scene

  This snapshot scene of the movie, M was about Peter Lorre (the murderer) was running away from the cops and hiding in the corner to avoid the other criminals who were eager to catch him.

There is a very contrasty and a mix of lighting and shadows in this black and white movie that made Peter Lorre to stand out very clearly to the audience even though he was in the darkness. Definitely it was the sharp focus on Peter Lorre to attract the audience's eyes to catch him immediately in the dark. The lighting used in this movie also used perceived and low key lighting in most of the scenes and again the technique of chiaroscuro to create a Noir feeling about criminality and thrillers. The color of the suite Peter wearing was a black, expressing the identity of the villain. The camera shot is just a medium to intensify the subject and compare with the other object (the shadow in the back). To create a dramatic effect and make the audience as voyeurs, the camera was angled in the eye level shot.

Expressionist effects

Again, our master of the darkness used a very expressionist style of lighting to express what is the deeper meaning of the movie, rather than narrating through most dialogues in the movie. Especially with the splendid use of shadows, in the scenes where an unknown murderer was coming to get the victim, where Peter Lorre was caught up in the cells of storage rooms, and where he was blocked from all sides of the other criminals to catch him (busted! :D ). Talking about the costumes, and apart from being black, Peter Lorre looked like any other people in this movie. He was not dressed up to look like a criminal, no bodily features (example: mustache, beard, crooked teeth and giant bodies), and no signs of wearing masks and gloves. This expressed the deeper and inner personality of a character despite the out looks in innocence and simplicity. Besides, the use of excellent props to substitute for the ugly and shocking time for the audience were the excellent settings to express. For example, the balloon Elsie was playing then hanged on the wired, the ball rolling over the ditch were expressive that the audience instantly got the idea of the girl being dead. Or Raped? The most important thing was a recurring motif throughout the movie which was whistling. It was like the trigger and the call of the death-coming in this expressionist thriller movie which made this movie even more expressionistic.

Narrative Structure

The Sigmund Freud theory of unconsciousness was well played in this movie, "M".  It was the freedom of id without the control of the superego. Peter Lorre was more like a kid without controlling by a father figure and started following the desire of killing the children in Berlin. The news about the murderer was everywhere in the town; that from the beginning of the movie, the audience got the exposition by the riddles the kid were singing. And from the time, the little girl Elsie didn't reach home, the police started investigating and searching by the clues through the public places. This intense search by the cops made the other criminals to back off with their jobs and thus, those criminals too, were very eager to catch the kid murderer. There was a parallel investigation and watch over between the cops and the criminals but in very much different level they are going. Police went from the top surface of the investigation and only spread out by the circular distance to get further (horizontal). However, the criminals, they knew the murderer was no different than any of the men in the streets, just nearby the neighborhood. So they spread out the people down in the streets secretly, choreographic placings with different people to make it less obvious that they were after the murderer (vertical).

         As soon as one of the criminal spies suspected Peter Lorre with another girl, he marked Peter with a sign, "M" to easier follow him. Peter, later found out that he was being chased by this mark, he started to run away in fear, to the office top ceilings. And there was extreme excitement during the moment when the criminals were searching him in the office through several places. Peter Lorre was finally caught and put in the court of the criminals and the mothers of the victim kids. He defended himself that he could not help doing that even though he was not intending to do. He was even afraid of that desire coming into his mind and he'd been running away from it but he could not just withstand. It was more like a psychological disorder case than a regular murder. The movie ended in suspense whether the case should be judged by the desire of the victims and to put him in a death sentence, or he should be treated in a mental hospital as he has been just a patient. The facial expression of Peter Lorre even exaggerated the feelings of doubt to the audience. I, wanted him to die in the first place personally, but looking from his face and eyes, I could see the fear, the tears and the fact that he was telling the truth about his mental disorder that also suspended me in uncertainty. 

Conclusion

These two movies were just 2 examples out of the whole marvelous jobs done by Fritz Lang. Both his German and American film critics  appreciated all of his expressionist movies and thought of him as the father of film Noir genre. His famous film Noir were so much in brutality, pain and horror that during his career life in Hollywood, his worldview was becoming more and more pessimistic. Lang then abandoned his works and returned to Germany and died in 1976 and from that time, he was interred in the Forest Lawn- Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. 

References

"Fritz Lang: Master of Darkness." British Film Institute, 22 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Aug. 2012. <http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/lang/>.

Kauffmann, Stanley. "The Criterion Collection." Current. The Criterion Collection, 4 Dec. 2004. Web. 07 Aug. 2012.

Krebs, Albin. "Fritz Lang, Film Director Noted for 'M,' Dead at 85." The NewYork Times. N.p., 03 Aug. 1976. Web. 07 Aug. 2012.

Kreimeier, Klaus (1999). The Ufa story: a history of Germany's greatest film company, 1918–1945. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 156.

  

ET 22: The Hero's Journey

     Joseph Campbell developed this idea of the "Hero's Journey" which is applied in many of our myths, stories and our own private dreams. Basically, it is about a person or a hero in the narration who travels into a labyrinth and that eventually changes the hero into a matured and successful person. Or mostly I can say it comes with happy endings like wishful dreams come true. With examples of two animated cartoon movies I have watched, such as "Spirited Away" in my film class and "Barbie and Nutcracker" as one of my favorites to further explain about this "Hero's Journey."

Their Ordinary World 

     In spirited away movie, a young girl named, "Chihiro" who is the hero in this story, was just an ordinary kid like any others in Japan. She was on her way to a new house along with her parents in a car while she was just making a fuss about her parents' plan. Of course, she couldn't refuse to resist her parents even though she missed her old friends, schools and the town. She was such a young and powerless follower after all.

     Likewise in Barbie, "Clara" living in a big house together with her brother Tony and her grandpa who she couldn't withstand against both of them. It was the time when they were having a decoration time and a Christmas eve party, her grandpa was making her what to do to welcome the guests and make some preparations in time. Although she was not very much in the mood to do all these, she couldn't just complain about it anymore but did it. 

The Call To The Adventure & The Refusal

     The adventure began when Chihiro's family found out the ancient ruined tunnel in the middle of nowhere in the movie, Spirited Away. Among them, the father was the most anxious person to see what was on the other side of this long, dark and mysterious tunnel. Because of the father's authority over the family, the mother had to accompany him and thus, she called Chihiro to come along with them. Being so scared as a little girl, Chihiro first refused the call and tried to persuade them to stay back with her. 

     On the other side, at midnight, Clara was meant to go into a mouse hole (same idea with long and dark tunnel) with a nutcracker, who came to life because of the mouse king's black magic. She too, was shrunk into a size of a mouse by that king and thus they had to go together in order to find the sugarplum princess to make the changes back. But realizing the fact that she was so small and the wooden Nutcracker came to alive, Clara believed that it was supposed to be a dream that is all impossible to come true. So she too, refused the call.




Crossing The Threshold, Double Faces And the Help of Mentors!
     Young girl Chihiro had finally been dragged along with her parents to go through the tunnel and cross the river. They were all attracted by the smell of the delicious food that would eventually create the dilemma to them, and trap them in such a spiritual world. By the time the sun went down, Chihiro started realizing the mess, first with their parents turned into pigs, then the spirit ghosts roaming around in the streets. But with the help of one boy named, "Haku" who saved her, encouraged her to stay there and helped her by giving advice to rescue her parents, she decided to accept the task. 
     Chihiro signed the contract with Yobaba and made her life trapped in this spiritual world. However, she did not have a choice but she had to stay there as another person named "Sen" if she wants to save herself, and her parents from the evil witch. 


     As well as Clara, who was made to go into the hole, was scared and depressed, thinking that she was not going to be a human again. Again with an encouragement from a little nutcracker, she was finally brave enough to decide to face the challenge, in order to save herself. Along the journey, she was trapped, attacked by the army of the mouse king, but the nutcracker was always there to make sure that she was safe. 
     Clara soon found out that she (herself) was a sugarplum princess and thus she had no choice but stayed together with the tiny kingdom and helped the citizens to attack the Evil Mouse King to break his spells over the kingdom.




Their Mysterious Boyfriends and growing into adulthood (O.o)
     Chihiro who was such a fragile girl at first, had finally learnt all the difficulties, tests and works with furious creatures with the help of her friends and her savior, "Haku." Different feelings that she had never felt before, came to happen with Haku when they were facing the near death and solving it together. Interestingly, Haku and Chihiro met each other before, as Haku, on the other side, is a river dragon spirit who rescued Chihiro once when she fell into the water. There formed this strong bonding between them, at that time, she had no hesitation to save her dragon boyfriend when he was badly hurt. Being not from the same world they each come from, they had to finally be apart with a promise to meet again from Haku when she could finally go home with her parents. 


     Besides, Clara also was no longer a carefree young teenager anymore, but in fact, she had learnt to take responsibilities, went into this adventure to save the endangered people and finally risked her life to rescue her little nutcracker when he was trapped in the prison by the evil mouse. They both were always there to save each other which made them feel so close together. Clara finally fell in love when she found out her nutcracker was actually Prince Eric from the tiny kingdom when the spell broke. But as soon as Eric said that he loved her, she was slowly disappearing as the spell had broken on her too. Yes, they had to go back to their different worlds but they believed that they could meet again one day somehow.  

The Elixir and My Belief
     These adventure stories, fairy tales and myths, mainly influence to our childhood and especially to the girls. The fact that going into the adventure is generally believed not to be girls' business in the reality, young girls always hope and dream their own fantasy experiences through these stories. This encouraged girls to be brave, to take responsibilities, and to be in leading characters. On their returns in each movie that I have mentioned above, they found their courage deep inside their hearts (even though they only showed their fragility on the outside). The girls found their capability to rescue someone (though it rarely happens in the reality), and finally their love. These adventures changed their lives from an innocent and weak youngsters to mature and strong ladies. And finally as I have written in my introduction once, "Hero's Journey" ends with such happy endings when they found "the love" in their hearts. 

ET 16: Singing In The Rain in Singing In The Rain ~

             ‘Expressionism’ stood out very prominently ever since the development of 20^th century modernism. Exclusively in the fields of art, many artists had coped this idea into many portraits and movie makers had transformed their films to be expressionistic. Expressionism genuinely presents the assortment of emotional moods and ideas in distorted way to the audience wholeheartedly from the subjective perspective. Gene Kelly, along with Stanley Donan, sophisticatedly directed “Singing in the rain” movie in a mixture of both expressionistic and musical motifs (colorful, modernized, sound). When mentioning other expressionistic movies that I have watched in my film class such as M or Metropolis, I have realized quite unrealistic settings and locations where the characters play with the ideology of fear. Expressionism can also be found in the famous screams portrait (by Edvard Munch) or even in the use of mysterious shadows to manifest a person’s sensations (like death coming) rather than a physical object in the movie 'M'. Despite all these facts that a person can convey pessimistic or ugly concerns through expressionism, Gene Kelly has successfully created optimistic one through his scene of singing in the rain in “Singing in the Rain!”

The scene curtains on when the two new lovebirds start with their first kiss at the doorstep while it’s raining. I remember the lines of them saying; Debbie Reynolds’ “You are a big singing star now, remember?” and Gene’s “Where I stand, the sun is shining all over the place,” which was very expressing in a meaningful way. Normally, the prop ‘rain’ is used to express sadness, disaster, changing weathers or the dark side of the scene in many movies. Whereas in ‘Singing in the Rain’, the rain itself expresses the release of all weariness and the beginning of a new ‘Don’ in peace with fresh ideas. Don is no longer a boring, muted actor alone now that he has transformed into a big singing star with his newfound love ‘Kathy’. He is now ready for love, ready to change and ready to fight with these dark clouds that everybody is running away from. The sun is now in his heart that he does not ‘run’ but ‘sing’ in the rain with a smile and a glorious feeling! =)

“I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin',
Singin' in the rain

Dancin' in the rain
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
I'm happy again!
I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain!”

            Gene Kelly singing these lines in the rain, while dancing with his feet, taps and walks, jumping on the light post like a kid makes me remember him singing “Fit as a fiddle” in the beginning with Donald O’Conner. Both of them were wearing stripes and funny looking faces that the audience would love to enjoy. They were young, cute, and free, and they took all over the stage like the normal kids. But Gene becomes a very well known actor that so many girls are dreaming to get him. Thus, of course he’s got these stylish and shiny white coats on when he stood in front of the public; in fact, he wore a phony outfit to be good looking. Now? Everything has changed through this wash-away rain! For this moment, he’s got his nature back. He let his chauffeur go ahead first so that he would simply walk back home. He is wearing a simple brown coat that anybody else could be wearing. He doesn’t mind getting wet and cold through the rain and he is very thrilled to touch the raindrops to his body. He doesn’t mind his expensive shoes getting wet but care-freely he jumped into the puddles for fun like a kid again! Thus, this whole dance and sing act in the rain has made Gene Kelly travel back into his childhood memories. It is so wonderful to stay young forever!

           Discussing the mise-en-scene of this Gene’s singing in the rain scene, the lighting was precisely natural; not too bright, not too dark. Many of the other expressionistic movies that I have mentioned earlier are full of dark shots where people sense the darkness (horror) to the scene. And the color of the people is normally shadowed black in most long shots. Whereas in Singing in the rain, the rainy day was just as same as normal nights with the street lamps on. And there is color on his body, just like we are seeing a very nimble and carefree man down the street without any intense feelings to wonder whether he is a bad guy or not. Besides, his tap dance is terrific. I honestly enjoyed watching him dance since the beginning of the movie. However in this particular scene, we (the audience) can feel the happiness and joy that he wants to tell the whole world by singing and expressing. His dance was fast-paced, taking up a whole lot space, and I can feel that it’s not for-entertaining-his-fans but for himself alone. We can easily feel this because this silly, puerile act always happens when we are dealing with extreme happiness. And this whole scene just expressed it again to us!

            When it comes to choosing expressionistic movies to watch, I would feel very bored as they seem very unusual, intricate to understand and not fun at all. But this “Singing in the Rain” movie is so superb that I would watch it again and again. Many musical movies nowadays are also well known among us like ‘Glee’, but nonetheless, “Singing in the Rain” has become my favorite musical and “expressionistic” movie ever since I watched it! And I love it!

Definition Source:  Garzanti, Aldo (1974) [1972] (in Italian). Enciclopedia Garzanti della letteratura. Milan: Guido Villa. pp. 963. page 241

ET 4: CHARLIE & BUSTER

Famous & People's Favorite comedians of all time!!

                   

              Ever since I was able to look at the TV screens, the very first options that came into my mind to watch were cartoons and comedies. People usually tend to look for these jokes and humors as they are such powerful tools that aid our stress throughout the day, bring up the laughter to light up, or even they were very entertaining things to watch as a kid like me who wasn't able to understand what was the concept of the movie, the dialogues or even what was going on with these characters back then. Two riots, very amusing and the most popular of all time towards millions of people were Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Although they were very much similar towards each other as in comedians and the objectives to convey the humors to the audience, there were spectacular differences that made them very unique and impressive from the various aspects of cinematography.

1) Charlie Chaplin (1889-1997)

Attributes of Persona:  Chaplin reminds me of my childhood clowns, or jokers whenever I see his funny images, something like this. His rounded hat, thick make up, shadowed and liner-ed eyes, and very obvious thick mustache are such clown's features that would already appeal us to look and smile at. What added more is his outfit; the small coat, and big loosing pants, the walking stick and big elf shoes! We can see that Chaplin tried his every best to make his movies hilarious especially from his exclusive look, which was alone amusing, apart from his actions and roles. Charlie indeed made himself the subject of the movies.

Facial & Body gestures: Referring to the movie 'The Cure' that I've watched in Mr. Rey's film class, Chaplin used the exaggerated facial expressions that a comedian could not easily possess. The time when he mistakenly thought he was being flirted by the giant man, he showed his shyness, flirty face, his squeezed shoulders, twisted legs and overall he became a 'female'. He imitated how a real lady would react to this flattering situation that he did express through his face. However, rarely we could see the close-up shots of his face like this, throughout the movie. His far utmost feature was his marvelous body movement especially his duck-like walking which was found out to be quite funny. Moreover, Chaplin used a lot more spaces than any other comedians as his stage for running, falling down, tripping off, jumping and all kinds of bodily movement. Giving an example, the time when he entered the spa as an alcoholic gentleman, we started laughing from the moment he got out from the cart and walked drastically towards the mineral well and fell into it. He was such out of control, which drew our full attention. Later that, the problem started as he tried to enter through the spinning door of the spa and he hurt the giant patient's bandaged foot which eventually broke our silence in the class with laughter seeing that Chaplin had brought all the mess. It is indeed true that we find it very humorous when someone got hurt but not died, though I don't really know the reason why but Chaplin just grabbed that moment. 

Challenges and Situations: When the time comes to encounter the climax of the situation in a story, they are mainly the conflicts or the challenges. The first challenge towards Chaplin in this movie would be the time when he was forced to drink the spring water by the therapist in front of this one charming girl. Even though he wanted to refuse the offer to drink, he pretended to be a nice gentleman in front of her by unknowingly pouring the water out into his hat. Besides, he also avoided the situation to get massaged by the spa therapist, which was seemed to be extremely hair-raising thing for Chaplin to go through. He couldn't fight back, he was such a tiny-boned man who would easily get knocked out by these gigantic men; but well surely yes, Charlie Chaplin was not the type of person who would just sit there quietly and follow the rules. He basically made us (the audience) anticipate how he could finally solve this. Then again, he used his tremendous and gymnastic movements to smoothly slip out of these dangerous situations. Chaplin just tried his every way to escape the challenges and conflicts that would disappoint or piss him off. 

Romance: Charlie Chaplin! I would say such a playboy, filthy rich-gentlemen who could grab a girl's heart so easily in this character. There were no death-concerning problems to approach the girl he liked and finally he was able to be her side just by standing out to be a hero-guy amongst the whole bunch of drunkards. All out of luck and ease, he met the girl, lost her for a moment when she didn't know the well was full of alcohol, and finally got the girl just in a short time.  

2) Buster Keaton (1895-1966)

Attributes of Persona: In contrast to Charlie Chaplin, however, Keaton wore much simpler, more normal persona that everyone else would be wearing which would obviously not identify Buster Keaton as a comedian. I realized him wearing no smiles but just had a serious face throughout his movies and thus, his fans eventually nicknamed him as 'The Great Stone Face" for his deadpan expressions. He didn't wear any funny make-ups, or comical suits that would address him as a comedian like Chaplin, yet he was no less famous than Chaplin either, throughout that era. Keaton mostly played well-meaning looks, slightly foolish regular guy, with or without the mercy of his girlfriends or families but the one who triumphs in the end despite the odds. 

Facial & Body gestures: To be honest, the movie called "The General" that I have watched in previous film class was the only, and my favorite comic movie acted by Keaton. Throughout this movie, we could rarely see Keaton change his facial expressions but maintained his meaningful stone face most of the time. In particular, the time when Keaton showed his only two loves in the world; the girl and the engine, his face illustrated how seriously he had felt towards them. Moreover, when he got rejected to be in an army, his face demonstrated how desolate and hopeless type of person he thought he was. For he, who wanted to prove that he was a brave and honorable man in front of the girl's family, finally was hurt with this rejection. Besides these stunning facial expressions, his stunts were also part of the most controlling factors to make this movie eminent. For instance, missing the bombs that were shooting at him when the train was still moving, secret and sudden fights to the guards at the enemy's camp, or his funny and smart ideas to delay the enemy's train on their return. While Chaplin was just roaming around in a very child-like, and carefree nuisance character in his little own world, Buster Keaton used a lot wider scene set-ups to create stunts and moves, fights and battles to make the movies in addition, to be adventurous, dramatic, and action apart from the romance comedies.

Challenges and Situations: Before I move on to explain about this climax or the turning point of the movie, I would like to write about the most essential period (the build up) for Keaton, which was the time when 'The General' train was stolen. It wasn't very long after Keaton got very disappointed with the army rejection and in a state of melancholy. Again, he was a small young man, just like Charlie Chaplin. He had no strength to fight back these enemies of other state to take back the train. Did he also try to escape? No! He obviously wasn't prepared to face with this challenge but yet, he decided to get involved as this engine was his only love left after the girl neglected him for he couldn't join the army. He realized he was alone following the enemies though he wasn't scared to take the train back no matter how many people were on the enemy's side. I would say, Buster Keaton was a very strong and brave person when the time came to encounter the big problems and he's someone whom a girl can really rely on. Even so, the girl who got kidnapped through the train robbery still had not known about 'brave' Keaton. He still needed to prove that he was a grown up, matured strong man to her and that was the climax plot. The close-up shot of her face, seen through a small hole then had encouraged Keaton who was hiding under the table in doubt to make strong decisions. In the end, he accepted the challenge, settled the conflict by defeating the enemy's army, and brought the honor and success. (It was such a happy ending).

Romance: Very much unlike Charlie Chaplin who got the girl so easily, Buster Keaton had suffered through a lot more which were near-death-situations. The enemies could catch him at that night when he was hiding under the table. Or at most, he could just avoid saving the train to save himself. But Keaton who was kind of honorable and love-able with respect person did not. He tried his every way of chances with his smart ideas without even hesitation. Thus, he finally got his lovely girl, his train, and what more, a general position in the army! What an honor!

Differences & Similarities 

                When it comes to talk about these distinctive factors of these two different movies, roles and characters, situations and climax were totally different, as I have mentioned throughout this page. The movie, 'The Cure' is such comedic and hilarious because we can see Charlie Chaplin in here who is alone funny. Everything that Chaplin did in this movie was funny and how things got messed up since he entered the scene, too. Where else in 'The General', Buster Keaton took "funny" to the situations he met throughout the journey, to the ways that he encountered with them, to the things that were unexpected. Nevertheless, as I have once stated in my introduction, they both were very famous and talented for they had made millions of people to laugh and enjoy throughout the world. They both were not masculine types that most of the ladies' dreaming princes would be, but yet, they both were loved by so many fans, including men, women and kids. They both were small but they did rule the world.

My Pick Up

                   Both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were truly great actors that I have found out in the centuries' comedies. Charlie was always one of my favorite childhood actors and until now that even I was so crazy I bought his poster once that I stuck on my dorm's door. As I have said earlier, I have only watched one movie about Buster Keaton and that was this "The General." Compared to that, I have watched tens of Charlie's movies and he was such a favorite idol to me. However to be honest, when I compared these two characters but not the persons, I preferred Buster Keaton in a sense, Keaton acted out in more a realistic way and he got these inspiring quick ideas to make decisions which got my nerves on where Charlie was just an old amusing clown. I am not sure I might change my pick up if I have also watched so many of Keaton's. But just these, just for now, just with these movies, I love Buster Keaton more! 

=)