Charlie
Chaplin’s onscreen persona of the Little Tramp is one of an outsider, though
not always one eager to conform and join the rest of society. He often lived
with a relative amount of bliss playing by his own rules, never seeming
particularly concerned with what society thought of him. Buster Keaton’s roles
also had a bit of rebellion in them, leaving Harold Lloyd to stand out with
characters that worked hard to fit in with society. In Safety Last! he is a hardworking store clerk trying to make it in
the big city, and in The Freshman he
is an eager new college student trying to become the most popular kid in
school.
The Freshman was the biggest box-office
success in Lloyd’s career, inspiring Keaton to imitate with College the following year. Lloyd was in
his 30s when he played this title character, an exuberant new student who only
knows about college what he has learned from popular arts, including a book
entitled Jack Merivale at College, a
clear play on the real 1907 book Frank
Merriwell at Yale. Harold attempts to emulate images of a popular college
student named Speedy from a film he has seen, though this only brings other
students to secretly ridicule him.
Only a kind girl
named Peggy (Jobyna Ralston) truly appreciates Harold, and she helps him to
understand that he must be himself above all else. This revelation comes amidst
a fantastic comical sequence in which Harold attends a formal event with a
poorly constructed suit. The other major sequence in this film is the final
climactic scene on the football field. In an attempt to gain popularity, Harold
joins the football team, unaware that he is merely the water boy. When all
other players are out, Harold is sent into the game as a last measure,
providing him an opportunity to shine. This final scene is enough for many
historians to consider The Freshman
to be the first sports film ever made.
The dual-format
edition of The Freshman includes a
Blu-ray and two DVDs, with a new 4K digital film transfer from a 1998 restoration
by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and a new orchestral score composed
and conducted by Carl Davis. Both formats also have all of the same special
features, and the package comes with a booklet insert with an essay by critic
Stephen Winer. The disc features include an audio commentary from Lloyd
archivist Richard Correll, film historian Richard Bann, and film critic Leonard
Maltin. There is also an introduction and other excerpts taken from the film Harold Lloyd’s Funny Side of Life (1966),
three newly restored short films, and a visual essay by John Bengston on the
film’s locations, and additional TV appearances and discussions about Lloyd and
this film. There is so much content that it requires an entirely separate DVD
disc.
Entertainment Value:
7.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 9/10
Historical
Significance: 10/10
Special Features: 10/10
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