The Pilgrim

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Steve D Ok but not among its stars best. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/20/24 Full Review Jithin K A few familiar tropes in movies today, probably making some of its first appearance in cinema at that time. We're No Angels and Romans seem to be versions of this movie too. As always Chaplin is pretty great even if the film doesn't try too much. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/28/23 Full Review Audience Member The jokes are sparser than usual and the satire could've cut deeper, yet "The Pilgrim" remains an enjoyable tale of identity theft that eschews the simplistic dichotomy of good vs bad. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Something about Charlie Chaplin breaking out of prison and heading south to Texas almost feels engraved in our hearts - like, of course we knew he did that. An escaped convict is the role he's born to play. Everything about his style of humor, the idiocy he often portrays, complements the type of person who is uncultured, unsophisticated, and criminal... thrust into a Christian society that longs for a new pastor, who he becomes. Chaplin is a behaviorist who merely exaggerates the human body's potential, miming psychologically-motivated physicality to make various points about our condition. He is able to understand the story our bodies tell in relation to one another, and utilize a varying frame rate to advantageously highlight these caricatures. Of course, our attention span is different today, our perception of what plays too long, such as the slapping child. But for a film that exists in a time where we moved at a far different pace, it never badly runs into that problem, suggesting Chaplin's idea of what an audience likes was a bit ahead of its time. Unquestionably, whether you're watching this now, or a century ago, Pilgrim is hilarious. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review sean l Kind of a middle ground for an evolving Charlie Chaplin, caught between the limited one and two-reel comedies of his early fame and the story conscious full-length features that would characterize his later career. The Pilgrim runs about fifty minutes, with a ubiquitous plot driving all the action, but still leaves plenty of time for silly asides and long-form physical riffs. Chaplin plays an escaped convict who's swapped his conspicuous striped attire for a minister's jacket and collar, and is then accidentally adopted as a rural congregation's new preacher on his way to skip town. Most of the comedy keys on the faux-pastor's cringey efforts to fit in, or his nervous attempts to dance away from pursuing lawmen without arousing suspicion, but these story constraints often feel like they're holding the comedy back. Far and away, the best bit is a long, try-to-be-polite confrontation with an overbearing little boy at a parishioner's tea party. There, the pervasive urge to avoid rocking the boat leads him to soak up all manner of abuse, as his raging temper simmers behind a polite smile and passive "boys will be boys" pats on the head. Feels even shorter than it actually is. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Classic Chaplin comedy, short and sweet. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Pilgrim

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