Watch Recreation For Free

Touches You

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This movie (like many other Charlie Chaplin movies) is pretty funny but it seems like it's missing something that the other Chaplin films had. The mustache! Chaplin plays the tramp here but without the mustache. All Chaplin fans know that you can't have the tramp without the mustache! Anyway the plot is that the tramp (or half tramp) finds a girl at a club who is also being admired by a guy who looks like the main character from Eraserhead, and they get into a big fight. It eventually dwindles down to the point where they both pretty much give up. It's another instance where Chaplin pretty much just made up the story as he went along but it doesn't seem to work here. Anyway can I recommend? Probably not because there are a lot of other Chaplin films better than this.

Recreation (1914) *** (out of 4) A woman and a sailor are on a date when he dozes off so she decides to take a little walk. Enter the Little Tramp (Charles Chaplin) who goes up to the woman and when her boyfriend finds out a fight breaks out with a bunch of bricks being thrown. RECREATION lasts less than ten-minutes and the entire thing really seems to have been made very quickly. It really appears that the majority of the sequences were just improvised and this is especially true early on when we first see the Tramp and he's trying to sit up on a railing but of course having trouble. Later in the film when we see him laughing and cutting up with the woman, the way Chaplin is kicking around seems to show the legend just performing and trying to make something work. This is certainly far from a classic but I must admit that it kept me laughing throughout most of it. The brick throwing scenes were rather violent in their own right and I think this led to quite a few laughs especially when a couple cops get thrown into the mix. There's a scene where Chaplin goes to throw a brick but then notices the cop watching him and he tries to act like he's not doing anything wrong. This is a routine that would make it into some of the biggest Chaplin pictures and it's funny to see it work so well even here.

Chaplin tangles with a sailor for the affections of a girl, which is certainly not an original plot at this point for Chaplin. The actors are also of notably less quality than in other early Chaplin films. Before it's all said and done, there's brick-throwing, the face-slapping and ducking routine, and keystone cops getting kicked into a lake. I would be curious to find out how the fascination with brick-throwing initiated in silent films. Chaplin does have a few Chaplin-like moments: At the beginning when he tries putting his legs up over the bridge handrail, when the cop catches him about to throw a brick and he changes his demeanor instantaneously, and when using his cane to prod the behind of the girl he vied for next to the lake. This is typically what would be referred to today as one of Chaplin's "park comedies." *1/2 of 4 stars.

On the set of Modern Times in the mid-1930s Charlie Chaplin spoke wistfully to journalist Gilbert Seldes about how, in his early days making movies, he'd simply go to the nearest park with a cop and a pretty girl and they'd make up the story as they went along. Recreation looks very much like the kind of film he was waxing nostalgic about: it's a brief, rudimentary sketch involving a rivalry between Charlie and a sailor over the sailor's girl. The fighting begins almost immediately, many bricks are thrown, cops get involved, and eventually everybody winds up in the lake. It certainly looks improvised, and I'm sure the actors had fun, but the result is little more than a few minutes of slapstick mayhem. Scripts as such were seldom used at Keystone, but if there'd been one for this movie it would have read: "Throw Brick. React. Hide Behind Tree. Grimace. Throw Brick," etc. etc. Spontaneity is the main thing Recreation has going for it; that, and brevity. I can understand why the middle-aged Chaplin felt sentimental about the simplicity of filmmaking in his early days, but the fact is, Modern Times is a great film while this one isn't. To put it another way, nostalgia for youthful spontaneity is all well and good, but there's a lot to be said for craftsmanship. The Chaplin who made Modern Times was an experienced craftsman, but the young fellow who cranked out Recreation in a park one day was still an apprentice learning his trade, and while it must have amused audiences in 1914, there isn't much here for viewers today to enjoy. Another drawback: none of the familiar Keystone players appear in support, so there's no Mabel, no Roscoe, no Chester Conklin or Edgar Kennedy to enliven the proceedings. The other actors in this movie aren't very interesting, and the guy playing the sailor in particular is a real ham.There are a couple of nice little moments, however. At the beginning Charlie is on a bridge, apparently contemplating suicide. He hoists one leg up on the railing and then the other, and swiftly falls on his butt. It's a dexterous maneuver we associate with Buster Keaton, who performed it all his life. The second moment arrives later on, when Charlie picks up a brick (yet again) to hurl at his rival the sailor. He's interrupted when a cop comes along, catching him in the act as he's about to wind up and pitch. Smoothly, instead of throwing the brick, Charlie acts as if he's examining it, appraising its condition, and then he wipes it off carefully and returns it to its original spot. In that brief bit, just for a few seconds, Chaplin demonstrates his characteristic finesse and makes viewing this short worth the time it takes to do so.