Influence of Classic Actors Visible in Modern Film

"The Truman Show", directed by Peter Weir, is a modern example of a film in the style of Chaplin. This movie tells the story of a man named Truman Burbank who thinks that he is just a normal person until a floodlight falls on the middle of the street from the sky. Truman finds out that his entire life had been fabricated and filmed by the director of a reality show. His mother, wife, and friends are actors paid to be a part of his life and the town where he lives is actually just a giant soundstage.

For most of his life, Truman was under the control of Christof, the director. This is similar to Chaplin's "Modern Times" in that the person who controls technology is the only one who possesses the power to exercise their will. Christof is in charge of all the technology that controls every aspect of the show and Truman's life - he casts the actors who pose as Truman's loved ones and dictates their actions and can even change the weather.

For most of his life, Christof kept Truman from leaving his island town by instilling in him a psychological fear of water. When Truman realizes the events of his life had all been faked, he is understandably angry and hurt. He tries to leave the soundstage and escape to the real world but Christof creates natural disasters to stop him. This illustrates the idea that the one who controls technology has power over everyone else.

Also, everyone knew that Truman's life was a reality show except for Truman himself. He was trapped in a made-up world under the control of the director, with the rest of the world literally watching him every second of the day. Truman was left out of something shared by the rest of the world. Although the movie shows an extreme case, his sense of an individual against the rest of society is a theme that "The Truman Show" and the films of Charlie Chaplin have in common.

Although the film is meant to be a comedy, the audience still becomes emotionally involved with Truman and care about him. Typically, audiences are detached from characters in comedy films. However, "The Truman Show" as well as the films of Charlie Chaplin are comedies that involve the emotions of the audience. In "The Truman Show", we laugh because Truman's world is so unrealistic and ridiculous. His "perfect" world seems comical to us. We still end up feeling sorry for Truman because he is at the mercy of the director. In a movie like "Modern Times", the actions of the main character are ludicrous but we still feel pity for him because he is being repressed by the boss of the factory. In both "The Truman Show" and Chaplin films, we are able to laugh at the character but still care about what happens to them.

"Dumb and Dumber", directed by the Farrelly Brothers, is a modern film made in the style of Mack Sennett. The movie follows two friends, Harry and Lloyd, on a trip across the country to return a briefcase.

The plot is very minimal and simple. It does not have any dramatic twists or surprises. The plot is nothing more than an excuse for all the movie's jokes and gags. The gags are made more important than any events in the plot.

The gags are slapstick in nature. They are immature and border on being tasteless. This style of humor is similar to the burlesque style originally used by Sennett. For example, the movie contains a great deal of crude bathroom humor involving bodily functions. There are scenes involving laxatives, anatomically correct snowmen, and drinking urine out of a beer bottle. These gags take things farther than any of the gags in Mack Sennett's comedies but both types are similar because they are slapstick.

Also, the gags in both "Dumb and Dumber" and Mack Sennett's movies are formless. The jokes and situations don't have much to do with the plot of the movie and could stand alone without the plot. For example, there is a scene in "Dumb and Dumber" in which Lloyd struggles to hold several things and get a magazine out of a box. He ends up juggling all the items, but ends up accidentally locking his wallet inside the box. In another scene, Lloyd prepares for a date by getting a pedicure. This seems relatively normal until his feet are shown on camera - his disgusting yellow toenails are long and claw like. These scenes don't relate to the plot and do nothing to further it. They just exist for the sake of humor.

Additionally, the scenes mentioned earlier are performed in an exaggerated and larger than life style. The bravura style was also used in Sennett's comedy films.

"Dumb and Dumber" also relies on mechanical humor to make the audience laugh, just like in many Sennett films. Harry and Lloyd drive a van that looks like a giant dog, complete with fur, a tongue, and a wagging tail. They look bizarre driving around in the dog-shaped van but take themselves very seriously. Without using words, the characters can make the audience laugh.

This type of movie is mass produced. Several similar movies were released around the same time, like There's Something About Mary, Tommy Boy, and Austin Powers. Sennett's style of comedy was also easily mass produced and marketed to a large audience.