Charlie Chaplain's Modern Times

>>Our black and white favorite, Modern Times, starts out with the clip of sheep being hearded toward the slaughter, and then cutting to the men working in the factory. Charlie Chaplain is one of the workers, who continually gets behind, caught up, behind, caught up, behind, until he starts going all too fast and then flips his lid. They say in the movie he has a nervous breakdown. Chaplain becomes like this in the film due to the foreshadowing element of the sheep: just like sheep being led to the slaughter, Chaplain's factory character was driven insane by the mindless tasks he was doing. Instead of thinking to do his job, it was more mechanical, and the idea is that too much technology can take away from humans acting...well, human.

>>Now, this movie took place around the Great Depression, and also around the time where movies were just starting to have sound. It warmed up audiences to sound, because it only had technologies make noise (which wasn't often) and the only real speaking was when the industry's boss spoke through technology to his workers and when Chaplain himself improved a song in front of a restaurant audience. Despite most the movie being in silence, the audio being made mostly through technologies also supports the idea that technology is taking over humanity. When Chaplain made this comedy, it wasn't just to entertain his flocking audiences, it was to have underlying messages about how people should manage humanity with their technology. Too much technology takes all the skill away from humans, meaning there could be no specializations in anything given enough time. How would that affect the economy? Lawl.

>>Anyways, there's also some good imagery (Mrs. Brown would be so proud) that shows how ridiculous the technology is getting:

>>Look at the huge cogs. They aren't that big in real life, even back then. It's almost as if it's overpowering the people who made it. Not to mention, in that scene a man who was called to fix the machine was practically (and humorously) consumed by it. Chaplain's a genius, it seems.

>>The next shot I just liked as a representation of the movie. It shows all of Chaplain's personality and also some themes in the movie, with the theme I've been proving and the humor.

>>The last image is a really good one. A company came by the factory trying to sell a product which would make the factory more efficient, and with this feeding device, a man could still work and produce more product WHILST having lunch! There would be no need to pause work. Yet again, this is another ridiculous technology dehumanizing humans. It was replacing our arms, rather, giving us extra ones so we could still work. As you may have seen in the film, it doesn't really work out to have that extra pair.

>>And, just for kicks, here's a picture of Paulette Goddard, the wonderful actress which portrayed Chaplain's lover of sorts.

>>As my teacher would say: Giggity. (Notice: she's on her dancer's feet!)

>>In conclusion, since I always have one, the film is remarkable and has more meaning to it than shits and giggles. Chaplain was a true artist.