Charlie Chaplin’s silent film, “Modern Times,” is a story of factories and their affect on humans. The movie begins with a shot of pigs rushing into their sties then quickly cuts to humans rushing to get to work. This series shows how factories change human behavior. They turn them into time hypersensitive beings. The overruling master also expresses a sense of urgency. Charlie takes a break in the bathroom and the manager’s face appears on a screen in the bathroom. The manager is so concerned with the efficiency of his company that he will appear in a typically private place to tell the workers to get back to their job. The movie shows a big clock in one of the first scenes to convey and stress the importance of time in the business.
Chaplin’s job itself also consumes his actions. The movie often shows scenes of Chaplin stopping his job for a moment but he still continues the action of wrenching. His job takes over his movements. The long hours and constant brutal direction limit Chaplin’s freedom to live independently. Continuing with this wrenching action, Chaplin goes outside and sees a very bodacious woman walking down the street. She sees buttons on her chest and chases after her to twist them. Chaplin does not want to woo her but rather wants to wrench the buttons on her dress. The factory Chaplin works in has replaced human emotion and lust for mechanical drive. The factory also agrees to test a new machine that would feed the workers so they would not have to stop for lunch. The machine is another example of factories controlling humans. The machine was tested on Chaplin and failed to work. The machine would again replace human action in hopes of improving the efficiency of the factory. The factories, however, do not only affect Chaplin, they also control his fellow prisoners.. eh I mean, coworkers. Chaplin is a humorous character that often toys with others. At one point in the movie, Chaplin has the whole factory chasing after him. The other workers chase him around the conveyor belt but stop to catch up on what they missed. Their job completely consumes that they engage in a comical scene where they go from chasing a pest to rushing to recover from the time they have missed on the conveyor belt.
Lastly, the movie depicts the factory as jail in which Chaplin and the other workers are held prisoner. Chaplin is sent to the doctor where the doctor tells him to not get ‘excited.’ As soon as Chaplin goes into the real world, however, the amount of excitement he experiences overwhelms him. This implies he has not seen the real world for a long time because of how demanding the factory is. Later in the movie, the officers release Chaplin from the jail but he refuses to leave. The movie reads, Chaplin is “determined to go back to jail.” He does not want to leave jail because he likes it so much more than the factory. Humorous is the fact that Chaplin would chose jail over the factory. The irony of the situation adds to the theme of the movie; the factory is jail and jail is life.
Wow. Leo This is a great post. I especially like the truth about the hypersensitivity of time. Virtually everything in the factory is sped up. The factory manager tells one of the workers to increase the speed of the machines, and that is why Chaplin ends up stuck inside the turning mechanical wheels. He fails to meet up with the speed of the new bolts and follows them through the holes. It explains that factories pose a heavy and increasing demand on human life and do not care of the welfare of its workers.
I’ve always been a fan of the moment when Chaplin sees the woman on the street and the audience just knows what will happen next. No dialog need be exchanged; the moment just works.