Modern Times

We like to think that comedy has evolved since the time of silent film. We like to think that with the advent of sound and the injection of modern technology in all aspects of film production has made just about everything better. Indeed, it's hard to argue that so much of today's fun and farce just can't exist without a sound mixer and a few boom mics laying around. Ask yourself, if you put The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) or The Hangover (2009) on mute, would you really get anything out of it?

By 1936, sound had long taken the film industry by storm. In fact, if you listen closely to the moment Al Jolson uttered "You ain't heard nothing' yet," in The Jazz Singer (1927), you may have heard the careers of many shattering in earnest. Never has there been a piece of technology so seamlessly adapted to an industry before or since. To name the number of noteworthy films made after 1929 that were silent would be to name perhaps a dozen.

Yet with this adoption came growing pains. The cumbersome size of the Photokinema sound-on-disc machines and their components meant cameras had to stay bolted down. Actors had to not wonder too far from the mic or worse still, find a way to wear several pounds of bulky microphones under their garments. What once were dreams, stitched together by editing cuts became pale imitations of stage plays. The grammar of film essentially took two steps back.

Seeing this, silent era superstar Charlie Chaplin decided to stem the tide. In 1931, he directed, produced and starred in City Lights, a romantic masterpiece of stagecraft and pantomime that to this day is one of the best examples of the beauty we lost. Seeing the writing on the wall by 1936, Chaplin decided to give the Tramp one last hurrah before retiring the character. One last bow before the tendrils of technology transforms his career into a shadow of its former self.

Modern Times is at once one last bow, one last look at innocence lost and one glorious masterpiece of cinema. In it, Charlie's lovable Tramp struggles to adapt to a modern technological age while causing light-hearted mayhem everywhere he goes. Throughout the film he tries to conform to working as a security guard, a longshoreman, a factory worker, a mechanic etc. yet his peculiarity prevents him from being at a work site for too long. During his struggles he befriends an woman named Ellen (Goddard) who aids him in his quest for fulfilling work. They of course, fall in love in the chaste innocent way that couples did in the films of the time.

Modern Times is infamous, for among other things, a soundtrack that includes the earworm "Smile" composed by Chaplin himself. The most famous cover was crooned by Nat King Cole whose astringent voice had the poorly covered scars of a life harshly lived. "Smile" to Modern Times is perfect; both as a bittersweet anthem and as addition to the American songbook. It perfectly captures the Tramp's uneasy monachopsis while hanging onto a buoyant hope of finding purpose. It's at times sad, at times triumphant but always life-affirming.

Modern Times is also known for large, unique and detail filled comic set-pieces that despite being around for eighty years still coaxes laughter. One after another, these moments capture the absurdities of industrial life no other film does. Whether it be Chaplin toiling over a conveyor belt of widgets or literally being engulfed by a mechanical do-dad, He always has the perfect expression to reaffirm his humanity in the most inhuman of situations. It's pitch-perfect pantomime done by a true master of the craft.

Of course, being the film advertised as "the one where The Tramp speaks," Modern Times does succumb to the encroachment of sound. And unlike in City Lights, Chaplin decides to inject it as part of a large theme as opposed to a target of mockery. The film is book- ended by two moments of sound, the first of which is his factory boss yelling at him through a large projected screen. "Get back to work!" he yells while the Tramp struggles to find a moment of respite. The inclusion of sound as an oppressor, even a personified one is an effective means of identification. Those who have heard the phrase "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean," will no doubt sympathize with Chaplin's character in that particular moment in time.

The second time sound is used, is to affirm Chaplin's Tramp as a unique individual amid a crowd of onlookers. Late in the film, Ellen finds a job for the Tramp at a restaurant as a singing waiter. Right before his debut, he struggles to remember the words of the song he's to sing. He decides to put the lyrics on his detachable cuffs. Invariably, he looses the cuffs and, thinking quickly, begins to sing in gibberish. It's a prank pulled on audiences clamoring for the Tramp to finally speak on screen, yet it's one that's so incongruously Chaplin that one can't help but admire it.

With Chaplin having a hand in every aspect of the film's production, one can write an entire book fawning over the exploits of a genius so ahead of his time, we still feel his influence. Modern Times showcases that genius, filling the celluloid with beauty, pathos, humor and humanity. Years after most of today's contemporary comedies fade into obscurity, those centuries from now will still fondly remember Charlie and his lovable Tramp. I guarantee it.

... as I find it to be the combination of the most relatable and the funniest of his films.

Normally I start these reviews with a short synopsis of the plot with a few personal observations, but it's hard to do that in this case without it turning into a bunch of "And then's". I've read that Chaplin had the general idea of what kind of film he wanted to make in this case, and came up with the specific skits and gags he wanted, and then built a specific plot around it. It was unusual for Chaplin to put any of the women in his life into his films, at least while they WERE the women in his life, and it was also unusual for them to get away without having at least one child by him. Paulette Goddard managed to do both. So Goddard is "a gamin" - a street urchin, also known as Ellen. Chaplin is just "the tramp" character that he normally is.

At first, the tramp is all alone facing these "modern times" of the 1930s - a dehumanizing factory job that causes a breakdown, then he's falsely labeled as a Communist leader and instigator and jailed, and when released he finds himself looking for work among the many millions of unemployed during the Great Depression. His fate joins with Ellen when she is caught stealing a loaf of bread and he takes the blame for it to spare her from jail. When they both escape - they are both arrested for the thievery - they join forces and try to find happiness around the edges of society, finding jobs when they can.

This is Chaplin's last silent film, but it really is more of a mute sound film than a true silent. The factory boss speaks - "Get back to work!" and Chaplin himself sings the gibberish song towards the end of the film - the first time his voice had ever been heard on film. You can also hear the crowd noise in the cafe when Chaplin sings.

This film has lots of blatant anti-capitalist themes, based on Chaplin's long held beliefs and observations from a childhood rife with poverty, as well as the contrast of the America he found when he returned after being abroad for a good long time versus the one he left, before the Great Depression had taken hold. Had he not been playing his Little Tramp character while making all of these statements with his art, the film might not have been passed by the censors.

This mostly silent movie deals with a little man , a disgraced factory worker who goes insane from his repetitious job at an assembly líne . At the same time the exigent boss demands him for greatest efficiency and speed at work . As the unfortunate man moving from hapless factory worker to singing waiter and ultimately triumphing along the way .

An interesting and thought-provoking Chaplin film encompassing the tyranny of Machine over man, this great film has more relevance nowadays than ever. The pic contains a sour denounce on capitalism , industrialization and human explotiation . This is a vintage flick much in the fashion that sound films offended his pantomimist's sensibilities . This is a silent movie , being the only dialogue a song sung by Chaplin in gibberish Italian .Chaplin gives an awesome and sympathetic performance as a labourer who goes crazy and triumphs over adversity , just as Charles the film director proved victorious over sound . Chaplin also composed the score which incorporates the charming tune : Smile. His spouse to be Paulette Goddard is attractive in the femenine lead , playing a poor orphan. Look for a young Gloria de Haven , as one of Paulette Goddard's Sisters . She is the real-life daughter of Chaplin's assistant director .

The motion picture was masterfully directed by Charles Chaplin .This was one of the longest ones to that date . Chaplin previously directed 2 or 3 reel short movies, such as : Our hero, The fireman, Night at the show , The adventurer, The floorwalker, The cure , The inmigrant , The circus , Burlesque on Carmen , among others . After that , he made long feature films such as : The gold Rush , The kid , City lights , The great dictator , Monseur Verdoux , Limelight, A king of New York and his last one : A countess from Hong Kong . Rating 8/10 . Better than average . Well worth watching .

Part satire, part slapstick comedy, part melodrama; the great pioneer of film, Charles Chaplin, has created his own monument with this film. At the same time, 'Modern Times' was Chaplin's last goodbye to the era of silent film - which, remarkably, had already ended almost a decade earlier.

After nearly 80 years, this screen marvel still makes me laugh, cry - and think about the ongoing automatization of practically every trivial little thing in our lives. Modern times, indeed.

To me, this film is as entertaining and funny today as I imagine it was then, and it's certainly as relevant as it was then.

The tramp still rules. My vote: 9 out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/

Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) is the final film to feature the great actor/director/writer's most easily recognizable incarnation: The Tramp. Here is a character that is so ingrained in the collective conscious of modern film audiences that many recognize him despite the fact that they have not seen a single Chaplin film. Indeed, several iconographic studies have labeled The Tramp (with his worn hat, distinctive mustache, dusty suit, cane, and trademark waddle) as the single most identifiable fictional image in history.

Still, the film that perhaps most influenced the creation and thematic realization of Modern Times was not even a silent one. The Jazz Singer, which debuted in 1927, five years before Modern Times began production, is perhaps the most important watershed film in the industry's century-old history. In the film, comic great Al Jolson stands up in front of the audience and...sings. And as Millard Mitchell said in Singin' in the Rain, the public was suddenly in a frenzy for "Talking pictures! Talking pictures!" Sadly, with the advent of synchronized sound and dialogue, the world of silent filmmaking began to slip into obscurity with audiences and studios now viewing it as obsolete and undesirable. Nevertheless, Chaplin continued his passion for the subtle craft by creating City Lights (1931), which many critics and academics consider one of the greatest films ever made, but by the time Modern Times was released, Chaplin was one of the last directors left clinging to a dying art.

Modern Times is not an entirely silent film, (there are dialogue snippets and sound effects), but if you look closely, every character with dialogue (excluding Chaplin himself) is being mocked. Even when The Tramp opens his mouth (the only time he ever did so in a film), the words are nonsensical, defying the burgeoning convention that dialogue is mandatory for substance, entertainment, and quality.

Despite the film's status as one of the greatest comedies of all-time, it is hard to ignore the political component. In his movies, Chaplin often exhibited a great mistrust for authority and progress, as often embodied through the social elite, the police, and wealthy entrepreneurs. The irony of the film's title, then, is two-fold. It connects with Chaplin's own bitter feelings regarding his moribund art form, but also refers to the plight of the working classes during the Great Depression (long working hours with little job security and meager salary, while the upper classes remain wealthy and bide their idle time) The world was changing fast, and Chaplin foresaw that many of these changes were far from beneficial.

As we watch The Tramp struggle through the modern, mechanized world, we laugh at his antics and the absurdity of their results, but we can also feel pain and pity. He is clearly a man who does not belong. Indeed, The Tramp can almost be thought of as a misfit who has passed through a membrane from some alternate reality and unwittingly fallen into our familiar world (notice that he does not have a name or identification of any kind, and as far as we know, he has no friends, family, funds, or history).

He takes on assembly lines, feeding machines, department stores, policemen and various other mass-oriented aspects of the industrialized world (all which demand and exhibit sameness and conformity), but The Tramp (and his symbolic extension, the individual) never seem to fit.

This is, consequently, why Modern Times is also one of the most poignant love stories ever put on film. The only character who is on the same level as The Tramp is a young, homeless woman who is referred to as "The Gamin" and is played by Chaplin's then-wife, Paulette Goddard. These two are brought together by the fact they have almost nothing except the will to live and continue forward, despite adversity. Both are nameless, neither has a home, and they each have no money or material possessions.

It is here that Chaplin makes his most poignant and saddening statement about modern living. The Tramp and The Gamin are the only characters who exhibit individuality and idealism, yet they are also the ones lowest on the social and economic food chain. The conclusion of the film, which most likely reflects upon Chaplin's own emotions, is tinged with sadness, but also a lingering hopefulness that resonates as loudly and clearly today as it did more than sixty years ago.

Then there is, of course, the comedy, which is the stuff of legendary status. Some of the most memorable comic images in film history are found in Modern Times. These include The Tramp's bout with an assembly line (and his resulting twitches), his unfortunate encounter with "nose-powder", the moment when he quite literally becomes a cog in the wheels of industry, and his epic struggle to bring roast duck to an angry customer.

In my opinion, however, the two standout moments are the scene in a department store involving a blindfold and some rollerskates (the most exquisite moment of comedy in the film) and the sequence where The Tramp is submitted to the mad whim of an out-of-control feeding machine (the most uproarious moment in the film).

These are just a handful of moments that make Modern Times the enduring masterpiece that it is. On a personal level, the aspect of the film that resonates strongest with me is its appeal to the idealistic misfit in all of us. In our hearts, many of us long for the simplicity and exuberance with which The Tramp and The Gamin live life (with attention to the bare essentials and an absence of need for materialism and modern trappings).

As Chaplin so skillfully shows, however, our modern times make this lifestyle a faded dream, lost among the sheep-like herds of men and women scurrying through a modern metropolis that only Fritz Lang could make seem darker and more devoid of true humanity. Still, the final image of Modern Times refuses to let the film end on an exclusively tragic note and demonstrates that the individual is still alive and may yet find his way in an ever-changing world.