From Liam Neeson in The Grey to Charlie Chaplin, five movies set in the cold to make you feel less frozen this winter
- In winter’s cold, what better way to spend your time than watching others battling temperatures and circumstances far more extreme
- These five films will give you a warm feeling inside, or a shiver down your spine
If you’re feeling the chill of winter as you sit in front of a screen – and in Hong Kong, where homes are ill-equipped for cold, single digit Celsius temperatures outside are matched inside – these films will make you feel grateful you are not experiencing the far harsher conditions their protagonists face. Here are five frostbitten favourites.
The Gold Rush (1925)
Inspired by the Klondike Gold Rush and the grisly survival story of one group of gold prospectors, the stranded Donner Party, Charlie Chaplin took their horrifying stories of hardship and starvation and transformed them into one of his most celebrated comedies.
His Little Tramp alter-ego, appearing as The Lone Prospector, must contend with blizzards, wild animals, extreme hunger and notorious criminals as he scours the Alaskan mountains for his fortune. Chaplin’s signature slapstick style transitioned seamlessly from the city slums to the snow-capped peaks, finding humour in moments of violence, danger and desperation.
The Gold Rush features some of his most fondly remembered routines, as he dances with bread rolls, attempts to eat his shoe, is chased by a bear along a narrow mountain pass, and escapes from a precariously perched log cabin.
Earning US$5 million on its initial release, the film proved one of the most successful of the silent era. Chaplin himself declared it “the picture that I want to be remembered by”.
Antarctica (1983)
One of the most emotionally gruelling survival stories ever filmed is not one of human endurance, but rather documents the varying fates of a pack of sled dogs, abandoned at a Japanese outpost at the South Pole.