Title: Modern Times
Year: 1936
Year: 1936
Director: Charles Chaplin
Country: US
Language: English
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”.
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.
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".
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.
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
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