Charlie Chaplin and Silent Films

During the late 1920s innovations in motion-picture sound technology set off a massive renovation of the entire American film industry. Almost overnight, movie theaters and studios began wiring for sound in preparation for a new era in cinema. At the peak of his career, master silent filmmaker Charlie Chaplin initially confronted this revolution with resistance. While he enjoyed certain benefits of the new technology, Chaplin combated the complete invasion of sound for over a decade. During this period, he slowly incorporated synchronized music, sound effects, and eventually dialogue into his films in order to deal with the enormous pressures exerted on him by the industry and the public. Through examining this transition to sound, this page hopes to introduce how silent films operate in contrast to talkies, and specifically how Chaplin utilized both forms in conveying his art.

The heart of Chaplin's resistance involves his notions of how silent films artistically operate in contrast to sound films, or 'talkies'. First of all, Chaplin contends that talkies surrender the aesthetic beauty of film in exchange for an enhanced sense of realism. For Chaplin, the art of silent film-making lies within the beauty of the images arranged on the screen, and their ability to tell a story. Their relationship to the 'real' world is vague at best. This emphasis on style, on the way ideas are transmitted, marks Chaplin's early films. These intricate assemblies of images tell stories and convey meanings through evoking emotions, laughter mainly. The actors exaggerate gesture and expression to transmit a universal message which is only made specific by the viewer's imagination. Sound, on the other hand, brings an immediacy and specificity to film by allowing the transmission of ideas through speech. As a result, talkies become less artistic in Chaplin's terms because the eloquence of form gives way to the eloquence of content.

Chaplin also criticizes sound as diminishing the universal quality of film. He comments that the silent film's message reaches the entire spectrum of "intellectual and the rank and file." He attributes this to the fact that so much of the silent film is left to the imagination; it is inclusive to nearly all viewers. This universal appeal of visual art allows the artist to communicate to a vast audience. Talkies, on the other hand, restrict the transmission of meaning immensely due to their increased specificity. Language inevitably alienates the viewer by dividing and defining along the contours of a specific society: race, politics, class, etc. These films no longer transmit an universal message, rather they tell a specific story in a specific language of images and words. More generally, talkies restrict the international appeal of film by limiting the audience to English speakers.

Despite this initial barrage of resistance, however, Chaplin slowly capitulated to the dominance of sound for several reasons. First of all, with the coming of the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism in Europe, Chaplin began to perceive of himself as an international public figure with social responsibilities. This caused him to be increasingly concerned with the message of his art. To continue to produce films that focused on style and aesthetic beauty while the world was in turmoil seemed irresponsible and futile to Chaplin. For this reason, he turned to sound in order to focus on the transmitting specific messages through his art. These messages include a critique of industrial working conditions in the United States during the Depression, and a strong critique of the Fascist regime of Adolph Hitler. Secondly, although the silent films he continued to make during the era of the talkie were successful, he was becoming an anachronism in the industry. Being extremely concerned about his image as a celebrity, Chaplin definitely considered this factor in his incorporation of sound as well.

During this period Chaplin struggled to produce three films that reflect his hesitant capitulation to the new medium. In the first of these films, City Lights (1931), Chaplin uses sound technology to include a musical score and sound effects. Although Chaplin communicates his humor in the film primarily through pantomime, the sound effects provide him with new comedic methods that deviate from his traditional forms. In Modern Times (1936) he actually includes dialogue in the form of a factory boss barking orders to his workers over a computer screen in order to strengthen his critique of modern working conditions. Lastly, in The Great Dictator (1940) he concedes to the power of the new medium and gives all of his characters the gift of speech. Sound operates in this film as a way of communicating a complex critique of Fascism, and of Nazi Germany in particular.