There Are Three Perfect Charlie Chaplin Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes
Did you know there are only two perfect horror movies? Or that there are only two perfect sci-fi films? At least, that's what Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe. The great arbiter of our collective cinematic taste has bestowed the hallowed 100% Tomatometer rating on just a handful of films across cinema history, and the result of this incessant ranking of art has apparently left us with two perfect "Toy Story" movies and just a single perfect "Godzilla" film. What a world.
Anyway, for whatever reason, Rotten Tomatoes scores remain consistently alluring to us all, even showing up on our streaming interfaces and instantly deciding for us whether a movie is worth a watch. Now, it's time to put cinematic legend and Hollywood hero Charlie Chaplin under the microscope and see how this giant of the industry can stand up to the mighty Tomatometer.
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin is, of course, responsible for creating and starring in numerous classics, and despite some truly upsetting controversies, remains one of the most fascinating and influential figures in the history of cinema. Best remembered for his famous on-screen persona, "The Tramp," Chaplin was a true multi-hyphenate, directing, shooting, and starring in films during the silent era, right through the evolution of the medium during the early to mid-20th Century. His achievements behind the scenes were just as important, too, with Chaplin founding United Artists in 1919 and becoming so influential that in 1971 the Academy saw fit to award him with an honorary Oscar for the "incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century."
Of course, the Tomatometer will be the ultimate judge of this titan of filmmaking, and the great adjudicator has now spoken...
The three perfect Charlie Chaplin movies
According to Rotten Tomatoes, there are three perfect Charlie Chaplin films. The first is 1921's "The Kid," Chaplin's first time directing a full-length film in which he also portrayed his tramp character. In this feature, the tramp adopts an orphan but is left bereft when his ward is reclaimed by the orphanage. According to RT, the critical consensus is that Chaplin was given "able support" from his co-star Jackie Coogan in what is a "slapstick masterpiece" that balanced humor with "moments of disarming poignancy."
Not content with just directing and starring in "The Kid," Chaplin also wrote, produced, scored, and edited the film — a feat he would repeat with "The Idle Class" which debuted the same year. In this silent comedy, Chaplin plays both the tramp and the gentleman or "absent husband," leading to some classic Chaplin hijinks. It's worth noting that there are only seven reviews and one top critic review for "The Idle Class," whereas "The Kid" has 50 reviews. Still, the Tomatometer doesn't lie, and "The Idle Class" joins its fellow 1921 classic as one of Chaplin's only "perfect" films.
The final "perfect" entry in Charlie Chaplin's filmography is 1925's "The Gold Rush," which saw the actor in his tramp persona while portraying the character of the Lone Prospector, who travels to join the Klondike gold rush before becoming trapped in a cabin with a fugitive and a prospector during a blizzard. Chaplin also wrote, directed, produced, scored, and edited the film. There are 54 reviews for "The Gold Rush" on Rotten Tomatoes, and the site's summation of the critical consensus deems it a "delightful blend of slapstick humor, poignant emotion, and social commentary," and claims that "The Gold Rush" is a brilliant demonstration of Chaplin's acting, writing, and directing skills.
What about the other Charlie Chaplin films?
If you're not entirely clear on how Rotten Tomatoes actually works, the site aggregates approved critics' reviews and uses those reviews to produce an overall score on the Tomatometer. According to RT, when at least 60% of reviews for a movie or TV show are positive, the media in question is given a red tomato. Below 60% earns a lowly green splat. A 100% score means that all the approved critic reviews are positive.
So, regardless of what you think of RT, earning a 100% score is somewhat of an accomplishment, as it basically just means that every approved critic liked the film. When movies or TV shows only have a handful of reviews, the accomplishment becomes less impressive. But when, like "The Kid" and "The Gold Rush," a film has dozens of reviews, gaining a 100% score is a real feat.
There's no doubt that "The Gold Rush," "The Kid," and "The Idle Class" stand as some of the best films of the 1920s. But "City Lights" proves that Chaplin was just as good at producing stellar films during the 1930s, and some of his best-known works apparently aren't good enough for the Tomatometer, such as the feature that shot Chaplin and his tramp character to fame: 1915's "The Tramp." Then there's 1936's satire of the industrial era "Modern Times," which features the famous scene of the star literally being swallowed up by the cogs of a machine. Or what about 1940's "The Great Dictator" with its powerful anti-dictatorship message and iconic, prescient imagery of Chaplin as despot Adenoid Hynkel? Apparently, these just don't cut it for RT, which should be a reminder to take this whole thing as lightly as a classic slapstick routine from the man himself.