The Freshman,deserves a long review, but it's a little hard to talk about. For one thing, normal critical procedures don't apply, the film is so dated its impossible to watch and get anything approaching the effect intended in 1925. However, the film is immensely valuable as a cultural document, and taken in that sense, shows us that American society actually has advance a great deal since the '20's.
Although the film wants to be a lighthearted comedy, I found it a little disturbing. Harold Lamb (Lloyd, who looks too old for the part) is a small-town kid looking forward to going to college. In fact, he has a goal- he wants to be the most popular kid in all the University, and imitates a character in a movie he saw, The College Hero, to attain this desire. Unfortunately, heÃ?s so clueless that everyone just uses him for entertainment and money and mocks him behind his back. When he realizes what happens, the only person who likes him for who he is, Peggy (Jobyna Ralston), tell him that he must be himself. He decides that the only way he can make people like him is by scoring touchdowns at the big football game.
And the problem is, the movie agrees with Harold. If there is every a movie that made me appreciate the counter-culture movement of the 60's, this is it. I found the pro-conformity stance in this movie offensive. It is one thing to mock young Harold Lamb for naive enough to believe the crap the media puts out, it's another thing entirely to mock him for simply failing to live up to it.
It says something that a movie about a college freshman, no one is ever shown in class, doing homework, or studying. We are never even told what Harold is studying. Hey, college is not all about your grades, but those are rather integral too, you know, having a career, supporting yourself, contributing to the community- things no one in this movie ever cares about.
After seeing this and Buster Keaton's College, I have to say that I am sick to death of the equivocation between sports aptitude and worth as a person. When Harold decides to let people like him for who is, Peggy should tell him that if he really is himself, some people will like him, some won't, and most will be indifferent. That is what life is like. Few of us can win friends with football stardom, and, really, what kind of friends would they be?
The Freshman (1925)