Title: Modern Times
Year: 1936
Director: Charles Chaplin
Country: US
Language: English
As of Dec 17th, 2013 I have seen Charles Chaplin's Modern Times at least ten times and find myself finding something new to enjoy with every experience. I bought the Criterion Collection edition quite some time ago and find myself having the urge to write about it every so often. Though this review is quite long, I assure you it is worth the time and effort to read. This will not be my last analysis on the picture, or of Chaplin's life, I intend to keep adding to it until I've said all that can be said about this magnificent treasure.
Just a brief introduction to the plot of Modern Times, it stars Charles Chaplin as his beloved character The Tramp. In this he struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman (Paulette Godard) .
In the early part of the twentieth century Chaplin built an
empire of a career in silent cinema. He created his own character, The Tramp, a
purely silent character that could not exist in a world of sound. This wasn’t a problem for most of his life
until 1927 and the Warner Brothers film that changed everything came along. The Jazz Singer became an international
sensation, though it wasn’t 100% talkie, it still left audiences around the
world in awe with the first ever recorded dialogue seen on the silver screen.
The Jazz Singer took
Hollywood by storm and created an intense demand by the public for films that
were all talkie. Many major studios
rushed their newly created talkies into theatres, hoping that the trend would
make them quick cash. Unfortunately many studios were unable to get the sound
equipment to work properly and as a result many pictures released during the
early period of sound were complete garbage and ultimately forgotten about
over-time. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s 1952 musical classic Singin’ in the Rain made fun of this
period.
Early sound films suffered from many technical drawbacks; in
addition to the limited movement, cameras at the time were extremely noisy and
were interfering with shooting, there were difficulties syncing the actors’
mouths to the dialogue, and the demand for screenwriters to write an enormous
amount of dialogue, at least compared to the silent period, was high &
created a lot of stress. Many actors could not make the jump; some stars, like
the German Emil Jannings found that their accent was too difficult to overcome
and would not be successful with an American audience. The demand to do a tremendous amount of voice
coaching was too much for some to bear. D.W Griffith’s lead lady Lilian Gish
decided she would rather take a decade off to do theater instead.
The ultimate antithesis to sound film was Charlie Chaplin
himself. He was too rich and powerful to succumb to the public’s demand, go
broke from not supporting the system and/or fade into obscurity, even despite
the stock market crash of 1929. During that year Chaplin stated that “Talkies
are ruining the great beauty of silence. They are defeating the meaning of the
screen.” He also thought that talkies were too limiting, with sound the tramp
could only be seen in the US, with silence the tramp could be seen across the
world entire. Silent pictures had no borders or language barriers, they were
accessible to all people because movement and facial expression was universal.
In 1931 Chaplin would stay true to his word, creating a
dialogue-free City Lights, a film
about a blind flower girl who mistakes the Tramp for an incredibly wealthy man.
It is no coincidence that at the very beginning of the film, the “words” that
come out of the rich people’s mouths are incoherent babbling. Throughout his
career Chaplin always compared the bourgeoisie with oppression, now he was
comparing sound film to oppression. The evils of the labour market in his
capitalistic society have created an inferior product know as sound cinema, and now seek to destroy the silence Chaplin loved. The Tramp, of course, will not stand for such injustice.
By the mid-1930s Chaplin’s political opinions were well
known to the public, thus they became essential to his image as a star. During
his world tour, in which he had visited pretty much all of Europe, China and
Bali, incredibly famous and influential men willingly met with Chaplin to
discuss world politics. This was not a shock to Chaplin as he had always been
adored by great thinkers, often being the host to luxurious and decadent
parties. While he was relentlessly pursued by great thinkers, he was also
stalked by a foreboding presence, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI had a file on him since 1919 and was waiting for him to slip up. Though
Chaplin’s political views were not that controversial, at worst they could be
considered “Marxist”, he didn’t really like to tell people about which party he
belonged to, in retrospect that may have been the best thing for him to do as
he was denied re-entry in 1952 because the FBI said they had a “pretty good
case against him”.
While Chaplin was on his world tour it seemed like an incredible amount of
history was happening around him. Back in America the depression which began in
1929 with the collapse of the Stock Market was getting worse and reaching
farther corners of the globe, Hitler and his Nazi regime were gaining great
influence over the lives of the German people, and Gandhi’s civil disobedience
was driving England mad. Chaplin was learning more about the world’s suffering,
thinking more about real socio-economic issues and reconsidering his views. Of
course, it wasn’t until his meeting with Gandhi did his political mind get a
real intellectual boost and perhaps change the course of Chaplin’s entire life.
On September 22nd, 1930 the world famous Comedian named Chaplin met with the
considerably more famous Mahatma Gandhi in a poor neighborhood in London.
Chaplin initially remarked to Gandhi, “I should like to know why you’re opposed
to machinery. After all, it’s the natural outcome of man’s genius and is part
of his evolutionary process.” Gandhi would disagree, stating that, “I wish to
make our people independent of industry, which is the weapon the Western world
holds over us.” Though Chaplin refused to agree with Gandhi at the time, the
conversation with the Mahatma stuck with him and he would reflect on it for the
rest of his life. His next film Modern Times (1936) would be a clear
sign that Gandhi's words had given him a new outlook on life, as the entire
film is a bold cry against authority and the machinery that had ruined the
lives of many men.
By the time he came to prepare Modern Times it seemed like Chaplin had
changed his mind about the use of sound. In the Chaplin Archives there is a
script which features dialogue for every scene in the film. The dialogue he had
considered for his own character was nonsensical and humorous; however after a
day of rehearsal Chaplin was dissatisfied about the results. Though the
majority of the dialogue would be cut. Chaplin did proceed with sound effects
and took great personal interest in their creation. For a scene involving
flatulence, he enjoyed found a way to create the sound by blowing bubbles from
a straw into a pail of water. The very fact that he was willing to experiment
with sound showed an interesting evolution regarding his willingness to use
newer technology.
While Modern Times is mostly silent, there are very brief sequences of
human sound. It is very interesting that the first words heard in a Chaplin
film should come from the greedy and powerful boss of the factory where The
Tramp works. “Quit stalling, get back to work!” Right from the start we get a
sense of the power of sound and the downside of it. The fact that this sound,
and many other authoritative sounds in this film is amplified by use of
technology also shows Chaplin’s disgust for modern technology itself.
The vile boss of the factory is obviously based on American industrialist Henry
Ford (1863-1947) founder of the Ford Motor Company which created automobiles
that the average American could afford to buy. He also had perfected the development
of the assembly line and made it acceptable for many other companies to use it
similarly. It was actually when Chaplin visited a Ford factory and met the
dictator himself that his previous conversation with Gandhi rang true. In these
factories men were treated poorly, they were worked like machines and were
expected to work a continuously fast pace over long hours or be replaced by
somebody who could work even harder. The Tramp’s nervous breakdown in the
beginning of the film is not a scene of fiction, many factory workers of that
era experienced similar emotional and physical breakdowns due to the extreme
stresses that were present in the sinister factories.
Indeed this film is a true testament to Chaplin's ability to
be both comedic and serious at the same time. He is a mature clown with a VERY
important statement to make. Chaplin uses his film, like he has used many of
his films, as a social critique.. This social critique is against technology
and how it dehumanizes people. It is a powerful statement against both the
rules and systems in place that prevent human progress. One has to wonder if
this film was a statement regarding the advent of sound as well.
The theme of Modern Times, which is essentially about
the oppression of the individual by the industrial complex, can be simplified
as the use of the individual for something other than what he/she has intended.
Chaplin has a variety of jobs, none of which he can stand, but all of which he
performs rather well. It’s rather interesting that every frustration in The
Tramp’s life is caused by the workplace and other institutions. These
institutions are supposedly created to help and satisfy, at least provide money
for a decent meal. However, Tramp’s jobs seem to last less than a day, his job
as a mechanic lasts precisely half a day. When his job is over he seems to
accidently land himself in jail.
When The Tramp is not working like a machine, he finds himself incarcerated. To
be idle in a working society seems like impossibility, as if it’s against the
law or as if idleness must take place in an institutional setting like a jail.
An irony f this film is that even though idleness is discouraged, it seems like
the workplace encourages it despite being created in order to enforce work
ethic.
The world of Modern Times is unfortunately quite topsy turvy. It is
where honesty is punished and dishonesty is rewarded. One example of this is
early in the film when Tramp picks up a flag that has dropped on the ground; he
picks it up and tries to give it back, but unwillingly becomes part of a
protest that is violently interrupted by police. He is immediately arrested as
a conspirator. The way Chaplin portrayed the police’s ferocity toward the
protesters was not an invention of his own, this what was actually happening to
protesters in the 30’s. An example of dishonesty being rewarded is seen during
every successful acquisition of food. It’s as if basic survival was dependent
on breaking the law and thus creating freedom from institutions.
The film shows Chaplin's strong dislike for the
"system" Chaplin gets arrested three separate times in this film,
sadly his life in jail is actually better than his life outside, where he
constantly has to look for a job and listen to the dumb demands of his
overbearing bosses .In the jail he is at least treated like a human being,
instead of a number. The "criminals" of this film are easily
sympathized with, since all they are doing is either stealing because they are
hungry or protesting because they are job-less. However, the ending has a
rather optimistic feel. You can succeed, but not if you are one of the sheep.
Rebel against the system and don't be turned into a wage slave. Through great
struggle there will be great triumph, as Chaplin and his lover walk off into
the sunset, happy as they walk down the road to opportunity away from
technology and the silliness of society's "rules".
Modern Times would not be the last film which took place in a backwards
world; Chaplin would soon turn his attention to the Nazi Regime which was
slowly conquering Europe with great force. This doesn’t seem like a shocking
move as he had strong hatred for authoritarian government in general ,
mostly because it was very dehumanizing, like the machines of Modern
Times. His public statements made it clear that this was not simple
publicity game; he hated fascism with a passion.
In some sense, Chaplin was completely right about technology being the end of civilization as we know it. If sound didn't advance as much as it did in the 30's, Adolf Hitler wouldn't be able to make such influential propaganda films. Triumph of the Will wouldn't have included Hitler's impassioned speeches & thus wouldn't be very effective. Hitler used sound technology to his advantage and as a result he brought the world to its knees. Luckily Chaplin eventually realized that he needed to fight sound with sound, and he made one of the most passionate speeches in all of film history with The Great Dictator.
In conclusion, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is arguably
more relevant now than it was when it was first shown in theaters. While
technology can help mankind, it has assisted in restoring Chaplin's pictures
and making them available to the public, it also has the ability to hurt
mankind. More and more jobs are being taken over by technology and he advancement
of technology has allowed more jobs to be located overseas, where people are
willing to work like machines for low pay because there are fewer laws in place
to help the average worker and it's better than nothing. The struggle to be
human in the technological age is increasing at a rapid rate. Hopefully we can
eventually get a hold of technology, before technology gets a hold of us.
Praise it! 5/5
