In 1931, cinema was in its fourth years of sound. Talkies were all the rage and silents were pretty much extinct. Hollywood had changed a lot around that time but one man refused to follow the mold, believing that silents still had a place in the early days of sound. That man was Charlie Chaplin. Not afraid to go against the grain, Chaplin decided to go on and make another silent when silents weren’t cool anymore, doing the opposite to what everyone else was doing at the time, and turning the unpopular into one of the biggest films of the 30’s. One of the best romantic comedies of all time folks, City Lights…

For as long as I’ve been watching silent movies, I’ve loved Charlie Chaplin. I feel like his movies connect with me, they’re special to me. It’s hard to explain but movies such as The Gold Rush, Modern Times and of course, City Lights, in my opinion, are some of the finest films ever to be released. The story follows Chaplin’s most famous character, the tramp, as he hopelessly falls in love with a blind flower girl who mistakes him for a millionaire. The tramp goes along with it as he has a friend who is actually a millionaire and uses his cars and money to keep up the facade for the girl. The only problem is that the millionaire only know who the tramp is whilst drunk; once sober, he has no idea who he is. The tramp finds out that the flower girl is in financial trouble and can’t afford to pay her rent so he goes through a series of attempts to make the money to give to the blind girl.

I think one of the best things about City Lights is the absolute, basic simplicity of the storyline. A man falls in love with a girl and will do anything be can to help her. That’s it. No complex subplots, no over the top spots, just a simple story that is done to perfection. There are two movies get me choked up everything I watch them. Broken Blossoms is one and this is the other.

Like every other Chaplin movie, the tramp goes through several challenges to try and get the money together to pay the rent with each one more entertaining than the last. The boxing match has to be my favourite one. I mean, think about it. This man is willing to go out and take an absolute beating just so he can scrape together a few dollars to help someone out. Not only does this prove that he really does love the flower girl but it also proves that although the tramp himself has nothing of his own, no house, money, car or friends as such, he is still willing to go through tremendous ordeals to help other people. This man is a saint and a wonderful human being. He is the ultimate underdog, he’s destined to fail every time but that doesn’t matter because he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart and that is something truly special to behold. I saw someone post something on IMDB saying “there is beauty in his failure, he finds happiness in life without going along with societies standards and he gives us happiness too, and a little inspiration.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

I don’t want to spoil anything for people who have yet to see City Lights but if you need one reason to go and see this film, it’s the ending. Like all Chaplin movies, it is something to behold. I felt range of strong emotions after seeing it for the first time. If you thought the ending to Modern Times was good, you’ll be overwhelmed after seeing this. Everything comes together in perfect harmony and makes you forget that you are watching actors on a screen, you are watching real people with real lives and real emotions. One of the most perfect endings in cinema history. You won’t be the same after watching City Lights.

City Lights is a film that everyone should see at least once in their lives. Modern Times, The Gold Rush and The Circus are all fine films but City Lights in on an entirely different level. You know while watching it that you’re seeing something special. This is easily Chaplin’s greatest achievement and in a time where silents were becoming less and less frequent and talkies were taking over, this could’ve been seen as a huge risk on his part, but it was one that certainly paid off.

Rating: 10/10

NOTE: So first things first, i want to apologise for my absence for the past month or so. Just as Silent September was getting going, I found myself working a lot more than I’m used to and i just didn’t have the time to get any reviews done. Good news though, I’m back! It maybe October now but I still want to finish the list of films that I made for Silent September so with that in mind, welcome everyone, to Silent Septober!