"I know, this...too American."

A major function of biopics is to satisfy people's curiosity. The times are gone and the characters are gone. Driven by curiosity, there is not enough historical data left behind. I still want to witness and experience. Using imagination is too brain-intensive, it is much easier to enter from vision, and it is easier to produce pleasure. Hollywood-style biopics give full play to this function. Those historical figures are swaying in many different ways, and picking a few paragraphs from them can easily make the film fascinating. This is the sweet spot of biopics. Compared with ordinary dramas, it is easier to "look good". It does not require screenwriters and directors to use all kinds of martial arts to construct. The biggest task is to follow the needs of the audience and choose the right thing to watch. Pushing, pulling, panning, panning, from panoramic view to close-up, fast and slow motion switching, this is the basic skill, but also the place where skills are embodied. Compared with other themes, biopics are more likely to be "good-looking", more popular, and easier to be recognized when the "skills" are the same. Among the previous Oscar-winning films, many biopics have conveyed and confirmed this truth. This is one of Oscar's unforgivable crimes. It encourages craftsmen to make tricks and hinders the pursuit of maximum skill.
The reason for the ugliness of most domestic biopics is the constraints of the external environment, followed by ability. It is difficult for clever women to cook without rice. "Unspeakable" has greatly affected the creation of biopics.

In "Chaplin", there are scenes of Chaplin's childhood life, mental disorders, performances to beg for work, large-scale entanglement with women, life-defying scenes, political views, national disputes, etc. Therefore, there is inspiration, vitality, loneliness, pain, glory, and frustration. There is a line, "I know, this sounds too American." Regardless of the performance, there is a passage where Chaplin played by Robert Downey Jr. improvised a signature movement: Luo circled his legs, holding an umbrella, and then using his left leg as a fulcrum, and his right leg bent outward. A 180-degree turn is very exciting. People who have made countless happy people around the world are unhappy themselves. It's pretty good-looking, especially for someone who doesn't know much about Chaplin.
As for the possibility of changing views as the understanding of Chaplin increases in the future, the change in the impression of this film is another matter. One cannot call the other party just a vase or a beast after enjoying it. In the film, Chaplin's evaluations of his previous wives are often harsh or even vicious, and there is no love between Chaplin and them. Chaplin prefers 16-year-old girls. Europeans and Americans are mature. The appearance of 16-year-old girls is not like a loli in the eyes of the Orientals. I don’t know if this point violated the moral minefield of American citizens when it was released and screened in the United States. The Polanski incident has been around for 30 years and is still being watched by the Los Angeles police. Of course, the nature of Bo and Zhuo is different.

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