MODERN TIMES by Charlie Chaplin

This 1936 Film was the last silent movie featuring the classic mime image of Charlie Chaplin.It was initially slated to be a talking movie until Chaplin decided the mystery and imagination would be lost.The title as well as the plot has a timeless appeal as each generation succumbs to the stress and pressures of the working experience.

The theme of Modern Life is the loss of Human Dignity to the all pervading power of the machinery of Capitalism.The characters turn into cogs in a never ending conveyor belt that never seems to lose the ability to keep on sucking the last vestiges of life , the harder the People work the faster the belt becomes.

The film has many underlying social and political themes , though the comedy is paramount at all times.One of the universal appeals of the silent mime was the accessibility to all movie-goers including the vast emigrant non-english speaking populations.This made Chaplin films instant hits not only in the US but all over the world.

Tellingly ,the only voice in the film is the bellowing of the architect running the whole show , an uncanny resemblance to a younger Roosevelt , the other protagonists are made to do with silent long suffering groaning.

A plot of this type , in the political and social climate of the time , could only have been made by an artist that was not American.The potential independence of a filmmaker that had an option to go back to the UK if things became too intense , as they ultimately did for Chaplin , could not have been forborne by a homegrown artist.Even in the late 80s we had a smaller scale , though equally instructive , example when the brilliant and penetrating Mississippi Burning was made by the British Director Alan Parker.An American director would have had a very difficult time in the pre and post production arrangements to pull off a project that asked such soul searching questions of the direction and satisfactions of the American Dream.Take for example the initial reaction to the Steinbeck classic Grapes of Wrath ( published a considerable while after Modern Times ) , it was banned in quite a number of places in the US and on two occasion copies of the Book were burned in Steinbecks home county of Salinas.

There is a very good review from the Guardian from the time the film first came to the screens.

As the review mentions the plot of the film borrowed heavily from a french Film by the director Clair , the director himself was flattered the great Chaplin copied the film , responding disappointingly when the production company sued Chaplin in the early 50s , a case that was settled out of court.

Below is an excerpt from the end of the film: Some have reflected the end has what Anthony Burgess was declare an Augustan end to the work , as opposed to a Pelaglian ending more suited to the dream turned nightmare which the pursuit of digging oneself out of debt that many today can empathise with.

The whole film can be seen in 9 parts in the youtube link below:



The official Chaplin website also has this superbly crafted tribute to the legendary Chaplin: