Modern Times

There is something fundamentally sad about Modern Times, by the very fact that it shows an unparalleled genius making his last move in the now-defunct art form with which he made his name. Charlie Chaplin, undisputed master of silent comedy, had managed to bluff his way through the awkward early days of sound, but by 1936 the talkie had got its act together, and screen comedy was dominated by the witty wordplay of the Marx brothers and the smart sass of screwball. Slapstick had all but lost its market, and the picture is saturated with a feel of "One last time…" A

nd Chaplin expresses his feelings with scathing satire. Modern Times is quite plainly a blast at many aspects of industrialised living, especially unemployment and Fordist production management. However the picture also takes several sly swipes at sound film itself. From the beginning, sound is associated with the mechanical, the authoritative, and the austere, with the few bits of spoken dialogue being via some piece of technology such as a radio or the boss's speaking tube. Sound effects too are reserved for nasty clanking and scraping sounds of machinery and things breaking apart. Finally there is Paulette Godard's pronouncement that "The words don't matter" as Charlie forgets the lyrics for his singing waiter act. Chaplin was of course very good at nonsense voices, as this and his Adenoid Hynkel act in The Great Dictator demonstrate, whereas meaningful verbal comedy was his Achilles Heel.

Despite all this vehemence, Chaplin is making one or two concessions to contemporary cinema. Modern Times features a lot more camera movement and close-ups than we see in his previous pictures, where he tended to stick to static long shots to preserve the best flow of physical comedy. The more technical approach here is always done for a reason – for example whip-panned close-ups are used for emphasis, and there is often a change of angle to punctuate a gag such as the half-built ship slipping out of dock. While they do draw attention to the funniest moments they disrupt the purity of the routine and are most likely concessions made by Chaplin for an audience not used to silent comedy. Modern Times is also much more variable and fast-paced than previous Chaplin features, skipping from factory to prison to department store and so on.

And yet, of all his feature films, Modern Times includes perhaps the most protracted bouts of silent comedy, far more than the story-driven City Lights. Despite its linking plot, the various settings in which the little tramp finds himself each provide fully-fledged slapstick routines, and there are very few moments in which point or poignancy are allowed to overrule the comedy. The picture is in some ways like a compendium of the non-stop gagging two-reelers he was making in the 1910s. Modern Times may not be quite the tearjerker that The Kid or City Lights were, but it is the master's final great showcase of his primary talent.

... as I find it to be the combination of the most relatable and the funniest of his films.

Normally I start these reviews with a short synopsis of the plot with a few personal observations, but it's hard to do that in this case without it turning into a bunch of "And then's". I've read that Chaplin had the general idea of what kind of film he wanted to make in this case, and came up with the specific skits and gags he wanted, and then built a specific plot around it. It was unusual for Chaplin to put any of the women in his life into his films, at least while they WERE the women in his life, and it was also unusual for them to get away without having at least one child by him. Paulette Goddard managed to do both. So Goddard is "a gamin" - a street urchin, also known as Ellen. Chaplin is just "the tramp" character that he normally is.

At first, the tramp is all alone facing these "modern times" of the 1930s - a dehumanizing factory job that causes a breakdown, then he's falsely labeled as a Communist leader and instigator and jailed, and when released he finds himself looking for work among the many millions of unemployed during the Great Depression. His fate joins with Ellen when she is caught stealing a loaf of bread and he takes the blame for it to spare her from jail. When they both escape - they are both arrested for the thievery - they join forces and try to find happiness around the edges of society, finding jobs when they can.

This is Chaplin's last silent film, but it really is more of a mute sound film than a true silent. The factory boss speaks - "Get back to work!" and Chaplin himself sings the gibberish song towards the end of the film - the first time his voice had ever been heard on film. You can also hear the crowd noise in the cafe when Chaplin sings.

This film has lots of blatant anti-capitalist themes, based on Chaplin's long held beliefs and observations from a childhood rife with poverty, as well as the contrast of the America he found when he returned after being abroad for a good long time versus the one he left, before the Great Depression had taken hold. Had he not been playing his Little Tramp character while making all of these statements with his art, the film might not have been passed by the censors.

Part satire, part slapstick comedy, part melodrama; the great pioneer of film, Charles Chaplin, has created his own monument with this film. At the same time, 'Modern Times' was Chaplin's last goodbye to the era of silent film - which, remarkably, had already ended almost a decade earlier.

After nearly 80 years, this screen marvel still makes me laugh, cry - and think about the ongoing automatization of practically every trivial little thing in our lives. Modern times, indeed.

To me, this film is as entertaining and funny today as I imagine it was then, and it's certainly as relevant as it was then.

The tramp still rules. My vote: 9 out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

This very well written story never lets down from the very first image we see, flocking sheep compared with rushing urban human crowds, to the very ending. Excellent criticism of the Taylorism/capitalistic through humor relevant for any age, nationality or time; story-telling that would touch anyone alike in a universal fashion, every now and then sparkled with Chaplin's unique and deeply influential sense of humor and on-screen comedy. Hilarious in moments, and unique. A man of many talents clearly, and excellent at those. Overall this depicts quite a zany approach to life, one that is pure in essence and profoundly antagonistic with the current ways of the time, and ways of today still: a life dominated by one-track thinking, rigid and stubborn social etiquette, and the enslavement this new world has brought in so many aspects to the human species. Finally, it highlights the importance of never giving up; EVER; and the preciousness of love.

One of this movie's most famous images--Chaplin sliding around inside the gears and cogs of a monstrous machine--provides a handy visual to go along with my opinion of the film in general: there are individual cogs that I remember as being brilliant, but when put together they don't make a totally satisfying machine.

Unlike "City Lights" or "The Gold Rush" before, or "The Great Dictator" after, I didn't get caught up in the narrative of "Modern Times," and I felt there were longer gaps between the funny bits. However, some of the set pieces in this are hilarious, most notably the scene where Chaplin finds himself strapped into an automatic feeding machine that goes berserk; and a nimble scene on roller skates that showcases his athleticism.

Sadly, "Modern Times" was an all too applicable metaphor for Chaplin's place in the film industry. New technologies were beginning to make his artistry obsolete, and the sadness of that is palpable in the film's final shot.

I'm recommending "Modern Times" because it's a very good movie. I just didn't think it was as good as some of Chaplin's other well-known projects.

Grade: B+