Charlie Chaplin: Weapon of Mass Creation

Modern Times was Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr’s final silent film  and marked  the curtain call and definitive farewell to the beloved  Little Tramp character he created.  It signaled the end of  Chaplin’s period where pantomimic art would be the central focus. Certainly, Chaplin was both stubborn and clever. The film has the word ”modern” in the title yet there is no use of any emerging  or existing Technicolor technologies or  synchronized sound film. Yet, these issues are in counterpoint to the film itself which seems as socially pertinent today as when it made its premiere in 1936.

Modern Times represents an artistic masterpiece in terms of filming, choreography and storytelling by Chaplin yet conveys a corrosively subversive dose of humour that is at once difficult to pin down yet apparent, demanding and accesible. Modern Times exemplifies the  best of Chaplins idiosyncratic filmmaking methods such as story improvisation challenged by innumerable takes in the pursuit of cinematic perfection. It is these opposites which provide the tension and dynamism in Chaplin’s art. The premium is still on simplicity yet the camera work is highly sophisticated yet unique to the silent film genre.

Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard

Modern Times is an indictment on a social system based on competitiveness.The film  shows the contradiction of an age of technology and machinery that is supposed to liberate people yet, actually has them more enslaved, disconnected and in want of life’s basic necessities. Chaplin seems to convey that employment is in competition with machinery ( technology) and the machines seem to have the upper hand.

Blame it on the markets. Modern Times challenges the belief structure of the time and asks the question how could so many go wanting in the land of plenty? In fact Modern Times shows technology producing in such abundance that there should be no reason to submit to employment let alone fall mentally ill because of it. The film also shows the  absurdity of work and makes light of American culture and values. Modern Times shows  people can sink so deeply on the social ladder and in such dire poverty, that the concept of a monetary system to them is without relevence. In sum, Modern Times is a European styled film bundled with the energy and imagery of  America. There are also inflections of  Chaplin’s English dance hall and stage talent  as seen in this clip :