Modern Times

Modern Times; silent tragicomedy, USA, 1936; D: Charlie Chaplin, S: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Chester Conklin

The Tramp works on an assembly line in a huge factory, having to curve screws all day long. He becomes mad and ends up in a mental institution, but after he becomes well again, he now doesn't have a job anymore and accidentally ends up in prison. Since he foiled criminals from escape, the warden releases him from jail. On the streets, he meets a girl who lost a father and doesn't have a home. The couple settles down in an old shack and starts working as entertainers, but get fired, thus end up once again on the street.

Charlie Chaplin's last silent film is at the same time his first one where the comedian's problems and 'glitches' started to show up, corroding his previously flawless style, which would later on become even more apparent in his weaker, second phase of his career with sound films, "The Great Dictator" being an exemption. "Modern Times" is a cute, sometimes even a subversive satire on both the Great Depression and the flaws of extreme capitalism in its pursuit of exploitation of overworked employees, Chaplin showing a lot of emotions and sympathy for its characters, but it suffers badly from the clumsy syncretism of sound and silent film, with some parts of the film featuring sound and dialogue, but even that is inconsistent (for instance, the CEO of the steel company is heard talking in one scene, and then in another he is without sound, his text just seen through intertitles, when he is with Chaplin). Another problem is that Chaplin wrote a very vague, almost experimental storyline, thus creating an episodic set of vignettes that meander from one misstep of the hero to another, losing itself slightly in the dark context of the clever critique of the modern industrialisation of the world. 

The exposition is without doubt excellent: from the opening shots, where a herd of sheep switches to a scene of a herd of tired workers; through the CEO appearing on the screen of the restroom to order the Tramp to get back to work; up to the legendary sequence where the Tramp is quickly working on an assembly line, but when he sneezes he loses his pace and thus suffers a nervous breakdown from all the economic pressure, the story shows the inhumane industry system that lost touch with the little man from the urge for hyper-production. Certain jokes remind of Chaplin's heydays: one of them is when a red flag falls down on the street from a driving truck, so the Tramp picks it up and waves to the driver that he dropped something, but just then a crowd of protestors emerges from behind the corner and starts marching behind him, causing the police to arrest the Tramp as the "communist leader". On the other hand, some gags are bizarre (the one where the Tramp ends up in jail and mixes up cocaine (!) with salt), and a fair share of them just doesn't work or feels forced and misguided (the woman having gastritis after drinking tea or Tramp as an apprentice of the factory mechanic, for instance, should have been cut) which thus give the impression that the story is lacking, underdeveloped at times. Paulette Goddard and Chaplin give great performances, nontheless. Despite not being as funny as Chaplin's previous films and too naive at times, "Modern Times" is a good achievement that amusingly paraphrases "Metropolis" and offers a couple of genius scenes. But its story is lost in all the preaching.

Grade:++