Modern Times (1936)

[Mr. Arkadin]

Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (showing early Monday on TCM) is an interesting paradox.

In 1936 Chaplin was still making essentially silent films. He would not make an actual talking picture until 1940 (The Great Dictator) He was accused by many of being old fashioned and out of step with modern pictures.

Despite all this, Modern Times is a revelation of modernization. Chaplin's character works on a factory assembly line turning bolts. He stops to smoke a cigarette in the restroom only to be spied on by his boss through a camera and told to "get back to work". He is later strapped to a "feeding machine" in a demonstration of how employees could work through lunch to speed up production. In another part of the film, he actually becomes part of a machine when he falls into the gears!

This satire about the dehumanizing of American life was important then and is still important today with so many workers stuck behind a new kind of machine (the computer) many times doing impersonal tasks for bosses not interested in them personally, only the results they tender.

Arrested on a misunderstanding, Charlie finds comfort in a jail and enjoys the fact that he has a warm place to sleep and three meals a day. The outside world is more forbidding where one has to be able to earn a good living or starve.

This might sound like a dark serious film, but actually it's treated in a light and amusing manner. When Charlie works in a department store as a house detective/night guard for example, he puts on a pair of rollerskates and a blindfold on the second floor of the building and skates perilously close to the edge of a precipice without realizing it (another parallel to his life). When he is screwing in bolts on the assembly line, he suddenly goes overboard trying to screw down everything in sight. His chasing of a woman down the street (with several buttons that look like screws on her dress) is hilarious. It's also a wonder that the Hays Code did not pick up on the sexual innuendo of the scene!

Chaplin was one of few people who knew how to entertain and yet tell us something about the society in which we live. He actually chose the subjects of his films with great care. Many of the things he points out are life's cruelties and the inhumane treatment by one man of another, yet we are not depressed because his characters often face life bravely and with humor.

This would be his last incarnation of The Tramp who always showed us hope in life's defeats by walking toward the sun at the finale. His later characters would share his delusion with American society, but Chaplin never totally gave up on us. Even his flawed characters in Verdoux and Limelight give hope to others even if they are bankrupt within themselves.

Modern Times might not be a the best introduction to his work for first time viewers, but in this day and age it still rings true and should be seen.

[stuart.uk]

i liked your post.

i would have mentioned Verdoux myself, but for the spelling.

to me it was a bit like Buster Keaton's The General (even though there was a 20 yr difference between the making of the two films), as both films were yrs ahead of their time, but failed partly because of the dark side of both movies

[Mr. Arkadin]

Thanks Stuart. Are you a big Keaton fan as well? There are many people who prefer one over the other, but I love them both equally and could not choose between them.

[feaito]

Mr. Ark, I liked very much your insight on "Modern Times" (one of my favorite Chaplin films) and I agree with most of your assesments. The subject of the film is truly timeless. We do work for bosses and owners of companies (shareholders hidden in the shadows-we might never know who's really at the end of the line) that do not give a d**n about us, truly. Sometimes I wonder about the usefulness of the work I'm actually doing...Does it have any sense?

[Mr. Arkadin]

Mr. Ark, I liked very much your insight on "Modern Times" (one of my favorite Chaplin films) and I agree with most of your assesments. The subject of the film is truly timeless. We do work for bosses and owners of companies (shareholders hidden in the shadows-we might never know who's really at the end of the line) that do not give a d**n about us, truly. Sometimes I wonder about the usefulness of the work I'm actually doing...Does it have any sense?

Well, I am a business owner now. Although the employees have almost shrunk down to family (due to the failure of manufacturing in this country), I can tell you that there are 2 types of bosses: People who try to help their employees and others who do not. We always bent over backwards for our guys and their families. Many times we got the bad end of the stick for it as well. Employees sometimes don't realize that certain rules exist not for the "good" people, but the bad ones.

Many larger corporations have little concern for the people who allow them to make money, which results in a worker who does just enough to get by. I've always worked out in the shop with the guys. I believe very much in a team mentality. However, if I'm the one taking the risks and responsiblity in running the place--I have the final say on what goes. BTW, working with family is great. You can yell at each other all day long and nobody gets fired!

[feaito]

Thanks for your input Mr. Ark and for sharing your experiences. My comments were strictly aimed at big corporations.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Thanks for your input Mr. Ark and for sharing your experiences. My comments were strictly aimed at big corporations.

I knew what you meant. I totally agree about big companies.