Throughout Hollywood’s history, there have been men who stood head and shoulders above the rest, who towered over other men as giants of their industry and others in general. These men were called freaks, usually typecast as brute enforcers and used like the strongman in a circus. It was pretty awful.
Alongside these men, however, have always been a select few who somehow managed to do everything where many struggled to do one. The incredibly gifted individual who could write, direct, act and produce, rarer than a sober freshman in Sellery come Friday night.
As few as they are, even fewer are the ones who could consistently perform all these tasks, creating an entire career out of being brilliant at everything about movies. They’re so few that I can devote an entire article to discussing all three of them.
One of the very first stars in cinematic history, Charlie Chaplin, did everything. He’s best known for his immortal, iconic character “The Tramp,” who was basically THE star of the silent film era, but he also wrote, directed and produced nearly all his own films and those of many others. I would try to compare him to somebody, but the whole point of this article is that I can’t. He was just on another level.
Beyond embodying one of the most lovable and instantly recognizable cinematic creations in history in classics like “Modern Times,” “City Lights,” and “The Circus,” he portrayed characters such as “the pilgrim” and “the laborer” onscreen throughout his early career; he spoke out to his audience, he represented them and he connected with them as no one else had.
Also, he released “The Great Dictator,” a comedic film about a Jewish barber who is mistaken for the dictator of a European country devastated by World War I. Now, you shouldn’t have to, but do a Google images search for Charlie Chaplin. Look at the moustache. This movie came out in 1940. He wrote, directed, starred in and produced a parody of Adolf Hitler at the height of his power.
What more needs to be said? He wasn’t just incredibly talented, he was a fearless and innovative artist who felt the need to make fun of the most terrible dictator in human history while he was still, um, dictating. Also again, he was British, so he released that movie at a time when his home country was at war with the subject of his film.
However, the dawn of the “talkie” and the end of the silent era saw Mr. Chaplin shift to simply writing, producing and directing fantastic movies as the rise of a new multi-talented superstar came to cinema. The new king of Hollywood, Orson Welles, followed in Chaplin’s footsteps by essentially doing everything on his own. However, while Chaplin was famous for having created a character that resonated deeply with his audience, Welles succeeded by displaying a fantastic range of characters he created and portrayed onscreen.
From his detective role in “Touch of Evil,” to his embodiment of human evil in the noir classic “The Third Man,” to his most famous role as Charles Foster Kane in “Citizen Kane,” Welles wrote and then became some of the most diverse, arresting and memorable characters in cinematic history.
“Citizen Kane” is, obviously, the high point of his career (after his cameo in the first Muppets movie). When people use the phrasing that an actor is generally regarded as the “Citizen Kane” of movies…well yeah, that says it. It’s the movie that every film critic calls the best ever and that every film student secretly believes is overrated (and that nobody else has actually seen. But it was and still is incredibly innovative, in every regard, and it’s all due to Welles’ ability to take his vision and apply it to every aspect of his films, something he excelled at throughout his career).
Of course, eventually he too moved toward a focus on directing and producing, and the next Hollywood legend was born. From the mind behind “Citizen Kane,” the torch of cinematic brilliance was passed to a neurotic Jewish comedian from Manhattan Island: Woody Allen.
Of course, it took time. His early films were kitschy little comedies that were funny, but not amazing. But that all changed with “Annie Hall.”
“Annie Hall” represented the shift in his work from moderately funny films filled with sex jokes to brilliant films about the meaning of life and death, the nature of human relationships and the existence of a god…filled with sex jokes. He was still a comedian after all.
Through this process though, he found a middle ground between his two predecessors. He tackles deep, human issues as Welles did, but he does it with a sense of humor and a lighter tone more closely in following with Chaplin. He also created a recurring, iconic character like The Tramp in that he more or less just plays himself in the movies he appears in. And it works, he’s a great character, managing to be really, really funny and really, really human.
Beyond just the quality of his films, the quantity is amazing. He’s written, directed and released a movie every year since 1977. Even if he’s only on 50 percent of the time, that’s a lot of great movies. And he hits well over 50 percent.
The question now seems to be: Will we find somebody to fill this role in our generation? I’d argue that Louis C.K. has potential and is the closest thing we have (he writes and directs his own show, and it’s fantastic), but he’d have a long way to go before reaching these heights. So for now, until we see another Chaplin, Welles or Allen, the answer would definitely, I think, remain wide open.
Do you have a fourth man to add to the magnificent movie-maker mix? Tell Austin at wellens@wisc.edu.
