Modern Times (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" (1936) has been referred to as the last great silent movie, the last appearance by the Little Tramp, and the funniest movie ever made. Those references may be close to the truth, but they may not be entirely accurate.

The French comic actor, writer, and director Jacques Tati would take up where Chaplin left off, producing half a dozen virtually dialogue-free films, of which several like "M. Hulot's Holiday" (1953), "Mon Oncle" (1958), and "Play Time" (1967) can arguably be called "great." Chaplin's Little Tramp is the principal protagonist in "Modern Times," true, but the little guy would reappear in "The Great Dictator" (1940) in the guise of the Jewish barber, complete with the Little Tramp's costume, demeanor, and mannerisms. As for "Modern Times" being the funniest movie ever made, well, that is obviously a subjective reaction. The American Film Institute ranks "Modern Times" #33 on their list of "100 Funniest Movies" and #81 on their list of "100 Greatest American Movies." "Modern Times" is, indeed, a fine and important film, but I would tend to place it a little lower on my own personal list of favorites.

In any case, it's good to have "Modern Times" remastered so well in an all-new digital transfer by Cineteca Bologna Picture Restoration and presented as a part of MK2 and Warner Brothers' "The Chaplin Collection" in a special two-disc set.

Chaplin's films were always strongly personal, but with "Modern Times" and four years later "The Great Dictator," they took exceptionally strong stands against what Chaplin saw as the ills of society. In "The Great Dictator" there are stands against persecution, dictatorship, Nazism, Fascism, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the earlier "Modern Times," made during the height of the Depression, there are stands against the dehumanizing elements of industrialization, big industry, big government, and Big Brother, (predating Orwell by more than a decade), plus the general issue of joblessness. Chaplin would make these issues telling through sound effects, music, minimal dialogue, and humor. But Chaplin himself never speaks in the film. He had thought about it, even written a script that included dialogue for his character, but decided against it. The familiar inter-scene cards of silent days report what he and others are saying.

Chaplin was clearly inspired by the assembly-line mechanization of the Ford automobile plants, so the movie begins with the Little Tramp, described only as a "factory worker" in the credits, working on an assembly line for a steel corporation. He must fasten bolts all day as they come down a conveyor belt. Chaplin humorously demonstrates the monotony of the routine.

The film's preface states it's "A story of industry, of individual enterprise--humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness." Certainly, Chaplin is on a crusade, one he hopes will remind his audience of their inherent humanity and the need to be treated as a human being and not as a machine or, as the opening reveals, as sheep. If the world is trying to suppress the little man, what better figure to rally against it than the ultimate little man, Chaplin's Little Tramp. He takes on the Depression, unemployment, riots, strikes, everything he can associate with the problems of the era. It's no wonder many of the democratic countries of Europe denounced it as Communist propaganda and that Communist Russia denounced it Capitalist propaganda.

It seems that everyone can view the film differently. Maybe it's best to enjoy its humor foremost and leave the philosophical ruminations for later. Enjoy, for instance, Charlie trying to keep up with his bolt-tightening duty while constantly falling hopelessly behind. Or his experience with the automatic feeding machine, especially the corn-on-the-cob feeder that goes berserk. Or Charlie getting caught up in the gears of the factory's machinery, a persuasive metaphor for how humans are an integral part of the machinery of modern life. Charlie becomes literally a little cog in a big machine, finally being driven mad by it all.

These initial scenes are the strongest, but then we are reminded that Chaplin had come to feature-length films through an endless series of shorts, thus rendering "Modern Times" itself a series of related short subjects. From the opening factory scenes we are taken to a prison scene, followed by a waterfront romance sequence, then a department store bit, and eventually to a dinner-club segment. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's real-life lover and soon-to-be wife co-stars as the young woman he meets and falls in love with. Their closing scene together is unforgettable and inspiring.