Review Of Chaplin's Film Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin once said, "Humor heightens our sense of survival and preserves our sanity." By the age of 30, Chaplin had made and directed almost 80 films. His movies were made during the depression and offered the average person an escape from the harsh reality of life. While he is best known for his slapstick comedy and silent films, he also used his popularity and position as an influential force against inequality. In the movie Modern Times, Chaplin uses his humor to show how technology can be a problem because it creates harsh working conditions and dehumanizes people.

Chaplin acknowledges what people assume to be true. Industry and individual enterprise create happiness; however the film shows a parade of men headed to work being transformed into sheep herded to work. This symbolism is revealing. It not only leads the audience to see that people lose their individuality but also to see they are treated like animals. Once inside the factory, the viewer meets The Tramp, a comical man working on an assembly line. On the surface, it is funny because he is working faster and faster and getting further and further behind. His boss is a symbol of the rich and powerful. The boss has no interaction with his employees, only communicating through a television screen to an overseer instructing him to increase the speed of the assembly line. The one exception to this situation is when the boss has an opportunity to increase production with new technology: a feeding machine. The idea is that with the feeding machine employees won't have to stop for lunch and the company can have an even more significant financial gain for the powerful. He uses The Tramp like a lab rat to test the machine. The result has the audience laughing, but the message is that the upper class uses the average man for their benefit. The result is that The Tramp approaches insanity because of overwork. Rather than the boss taking an interest in his employee’s welfare, he is deemed useless and is thrown away and out of a job. The message is people are disposable.

The supporting character is a teenage street urchin, The Gamin, who tries to survive on the streets and feed her family. Her situation highlights the inequality between the upper and lower class. In this movie, we do not see a middle class. The audience can relate to the female lead's character, unemployment, hardships, and want. When her father argues with the police, who we assume should be the good guys; the authorities shot him. Thrown into turmoil from his death the family is destroyed. The family should be a symbol of unity, strength, love, and protection, but we see it torn apart by the very people that should be protecting people. The Tramp and The Gamin having all this in common, unite. They want what everyone wants: to be happy and have their basic needs met. The viewer laughs as they happily struggle to make a little shack into a home. In this small house, they have happiness. It is short-lived as reality, and the need for money and food force them to steal. The Tramp winds up in prison and doesn't want to leave because he has a warm bed and food. A series of comedic errors force him back out on the street, and he is briefly reemployed in the same factory. There is an amusing scene where he is swallowed by the machinery; symbolically showing man becoming a machinery part. In the closing scene, they dream of a happy future, walking into the sunset sending the message that the human spirit can conquer all.

The film's message is a warning that industrial advancements while they may make life easier can also have a dark side. Technological Determinism is a Marxist idea that technological innovation is the most important determinant of change in society’s cultural values. Technology has many benefits, but it also can dehumanize people. In many ways, society’s relationship with technology has not changed. Social Media is a perfect example of what the Chaplin film forewarns as it allows us to communicate anytime and anywhere but in the process, we are in danger of losing the most vital form of interaction; face to face conversation. UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian found that 58 percent of communication is through body language, 35 percent through vocal tone, pitch, and emphasis, and a mere 7 percent through the content of the message. As social interaction becomes less personal, there is the risk of misunderstanding and even a dehumanization of our relationships.

Chaplin’s film Modern Times is a foreshadowing of the possible inequalities and dehumanization that can and in some cases have occurred, all in the name of progress.