Chaplin | 
 enlarge | Director: Richard Attenborough
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Paul Rhys, John Thaw, Moira Kelly
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.87
You Save: $7.11 (47%)
New (26) Used (7) Collectible (2) from $7.87
Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 1051
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 135
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 60483
ISBN: 0784011680
UPC: 012236048305
EAN: 9780784011683
ASIN: 0784011680
Theatrical Release Date: January 8, 1993
Release Date: May 20, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** THE SOURCE FOR RARE MEDIA, THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS SATISFIED, AND OVER 250 000 ITEMS IN STOCK, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Sir Richard Attenborough's biographical film of the life and times of Charles Chaplin is a little thin as a narrative, but it is so charmingly creative and ultimately moving, it's hard to care about any deficits. Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job re-creating Chaplin's graceful slapstick and getting inside the silent-film superstar's head over many years of triumph, defeat, scandal, official persecution, exile, and inner peace. A huge cast portray the allies, friends, lovers, and enemies in Chaplin's life, including Moira Kelly as his final, longtime wife, Oona, Kevin Kline as Douglas Fairbanks, Geraldine Chaplin as Charlie's mother, and James Woods as a prosecutor working hard to nail Chaplin for anti-American sentiments. Attenborough declines to tell the story in a flat, linear way, employing such clever techniques as detailing one chapter in Chaplin's life as a silent comedy. The climactic scene set at an Oscar tribute for Chaplin will get the tears flowing. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Good transfer to DVD, but not anamorphic July 31, 2008
This review refers to the 1998 DVD edition, the only edition available as of this writing. "Chaplin" is a well-crafted, well-acted biography of the famous silent-screen actor/comedian. The transfer of this 1993 film to DVD is adequate. The format is letter-boxed widescreen (not anamorphic--there are black bars on all sides of the image on a large-screen TV. The side bars are not seen on a smaller screen TV). The picture is fairly sharp, the colors are good, sound quality is fine. The film has an old look about it, but this was probably the intended effect. This is the kind of movie you will watch more than once, so it's worth the purchase price. Highly recommended!
Downey and the cast are top notch July 24, 2008
I actually met Robert back in the day when they were filming this. He was in Charlie Chaplin character and didn't speak a word - used only expressions and cracked us up. It was funny, then when I finally saw the film just this year, I realized how talented this man is, and often with talent comes addictions etc. If you've seen Iron Man, Downey is having a great comeback! Chaplin is a really candid look at Mr. Chaplin's real life, the silent films, the era,the politics of old Hollywood etc. I tried to rent it but the store didn't have it, so I purchased a copy and plan to watch this one many more times. The cast is amazing, and everyone's performances are right on.
 Chaplin July 5, 2008
Robert Downey Jr. nailed it! A wonderful well done movie! I think any Charlie Chaplin fan would appreciate it.
So Right To Have Remained British June 23, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is probably not the best film ever made about Charlie Chaplin, and I even think it is far behind Charlie Chaplin's own autobiography on which it is supposed to be based. But it makes a couple of points rather well. First, show business is business first of all. Brutal, expeditious, pitiless, cruel, full of hate and with hardly any love, except the illusion of a companionship they call love in Hollywood. But we know that. And even the FBI or McCarthy could not touch that: business money is business money and cannot be spoiled even if the owner is a communist or at least is accused of being one. Second, McCarthyism was an ugly adventure in the USA, but it is shown as having run in the texture of the country from the very start and particularly after the Russian revolution. The best part about it is that it made American politicians suspicious of anything that was not lauding the USA as THE ONLY country of freedom (except of course for those that have been declared unwanted characters, or anything that could in anyway seem to be supporting the poor, the working class, the underlings of this egotistic world. The portrait of Edgar Hoover is that of a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and yet nothing but an apparatchik that never leaves his pacifying desk and the comfortable warmth of his office. Third, this film shows so well through Chaplin's own life how the world changed and how no politician can stop it. A politician can make some people suffer, at times a lot when he has the means to go out and wage war, but even so he will not be able to change history, to stop history, to even strand or wreck history. Hitler is the best case at hand. The amount of suffering he caused is enormous and yet did he stop history, did he block it into some eternal barbaric dictatorship? Of course not. And Charlie Chaplin's wisecrack about not having the honor of being a Jew is the best answer anyone could do to any attempt at hijacking history: I don't have the honor of being your victim, and if I were your victim I would be honored to be one of them, to have their company. British wit and humor at the same time as British caustic sarcasm. Beautiful!
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Not perfect, but very good June 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is far from a perfect movie, but it's still a very good movie and interesting for a number of reasons.
On the down side, I think it probably presents a very biased view of Chaplin, at the expenses of many of his contemporaries (Mabel Normand in particular). It would have been a much better movie had it been less eager to excuse the less appealing aspects of Chaplin's personality.
On the up side, Robert Downey, Jr., does a remarkable job of imitating Chaplin's physical comedy, and it's a treat to get a look at the very early days of the movies. I recommend this (and rate it well) despite its considerable flaws, and I wish more biographies (even fictionalized biographies) were made of early film stars.
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