Welcome to the first ever MovieJawn Split Decision! Each week, Ryan will pose a question to our staff of knowledgable and passionate film lovers and share the responses. Chime in on Twitter, Facebook, our Instagram, or in the comments below.

This week’s question:

In honor of the recent centennial for The Kid, what is your favorite film directed by Charlie Chaplin?

As much as I love the gags, stunts, and laughs in Chaplin's movies, my favourite aspect is how he honestly portrays humanity. Sometimes it's not flattering, and other times it's saddening. That being said, my favourite Chaplin film is Limelight (1952). It's one of the most beautifully heartbreaking movies I've seen, while still showing glimmers of his humour. I believe that the best thing we can do as humans is to be there for each other, to try to make this world a better place. Chaplin believed that as well. (Also that score!)
–Ashley Jane Davis, Staff Writer

In terms of silent filmmakers, Charlie has always come in as a second as there is no way he is topping Buster Keaton. However, there are two flicks of his that I hold close to my heart.

I am quite fond of The Gold Rush (1925) as you can't go wrong with dancing rolls. However, one of my favorites from the tramp is A Dog's Life (1918). The story of Charlie and his dog melts my heart. I love how they fall headfirst into cash, adopt a lady friend and buy a farm. And just when life could not be any sweeter a bundle of joy arrives: Puppies! –Rosalie Kicks, The Old Sport

The Gold Rush (1927) has to be my sentimental favorite Chaplin, and maybe my outright favorite to boot. It is ingrained in my childhood memory as one of the classics my father introduced to us early (along with the Laurel and Hardy flick March of the Wooden Soldiers), and it cannot be stricken from the shaping of my absolute love of the medium. There is so much delight, whimsy, invention, daring and dynamism in this film about our lovable tramp on an entrepreneurial escapade out west one particularly unforgiving winter.
–Éireann Mannino, Contributor

I feel like “a movie my relative watched with me early” will be a recurring theme here, and in the interest of blazing this trail, I’ll follow suit and recognize Modern Times as my favorite Chaplin movie. My super-capitalist grandfather, probably under the impression the system Chaplin was making fun of had died with the Great Depression, showed it to me when I was a kid, and I complied because I wanted to make him happy. I loved The Three Stooges, but that was as far back as I had gone, and I assumed this was going to be decidedly less goofy. If I struggled to get through old Saturday Night Live skits that felt ten minutes too long, surely a mostly-silent film from 1936 would age like crap. Nap time.

Turns out SNL just sucks! Modern Times’ comedy hadn’t aged a day. I knew then, as I know when I watch it now, that this is something special. Whatever speed I’m operating at, whatever mood I want from a movie, I can watch Modern Times and be happy. –Alex Rudolph, Staff Writer

Without a doubt, it has to be Modern Times. Taking the best elements of his previous features - The Kid's social consciousness, The Gold Rush's gripping absurdity, The Circus's comedic athleticism, City Lights's bittersweet romance - Chaplin crafts his nearly-silent masterpiece. Nearly a century later, I can't think of a single film that matches its combination of timeless physical comedy and incisive (and all-too-relevant) political commentary. I'm sure Jeff Bezos is developing his own Billows Feeding Machine right now...
–Ryan Smillie, Staff Writer

I think Monsieur Verdoux (1947) takes my personal prize for favorite Chaplin Film. Between the very dark comedy, the strong anti-war message that wraps up the film, and the gentility of a speaking Charlie Chaplin, it’s simply sublime.

I also appreciate the fact that when the House UnAmerican Activities Committee tried to subpoena him for his “communist sentiments” espoused in the film, he simply reminded them that he was not an American and their subpoena had no power, and moved to Switzerland after they revoked his reentry permit when he went to London for the premiere of Limelight.

It’s a witty, vicious and somehow melancholy film, all at once. –Anthony Glassman, Contributor

I admittedly have only seen The Great Dictator, but when I was a theatre minor we studied it a lot and I found it fascinating. –Liz Wiest, Staff Writer

While I have a strong place in my heart for City Lights, The Great Dictator is right alongside it as a perfect film. I am of the opinion that pointing out how silly fascists are is a responsibility for any of us who encounter it, and The Great Dictator is perhaps the apex of the form. Over a half century later, it remains as earnest, entertaining, and sadly urgent as it did all those years ago. Soliloquies rarely work in film, but Chaplin’s final speech in this film is a stellar counterexample. –Ryan Silberstein, The Red Herring