Modern Times... in... 1936

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplain’s Modern Times is one of those timeless films that will last forever. It's display of comedy kept me focused and laughing, a tactic used by Chaplin in almost every one of his films. Yet, Modern Times has so much more to offer. It portrays the story of a man who struggles to find a job during the worst recession in America's history, known now as the Great Depression. While the severity and seriousness of this topic is presented at the very beginning of the film, the viewer finds him/herself distracted from it, due to the constant comedic relief.

And that is, in my opinion, one of the sole purposes of the movie. Filmed and released during the time of the Great Depression, Chaplin really focused on taking the sadness and stress out of what was going on across the nation, and even across the world. As we discussed in class, the relief of stress is why we as humans enjoy comedy. There is a sense of irony, however. The film was probably not seen by very many, because a movie was most likely not something anyone had the money to spend on.

However, I believe that stress relief was not the only purpose of this movie. There are many blatant and discreet messages portrayed throughout the show. For example, Police brutality and corruption. We see this when Chaplin is arrested, and jailed, after the false accusations of him being a protest/strike leader, just because he was trying to return a lost flag. Without trial or investigation, he was immediately put into prison.

Another sort of, "hidden" argument in the film is the control that employers had over their employees at the time. We first see this when the salesman comes to try and sell his "feeding machine" to Chaplain’s boss. He claims that it is for the benefit of the worker, when in reality, it is to profit the boss. We can also pull from this a sense of dependency that the employer must have felt his workers had. He didn't think they could even feed themselves, let alone do their own work.

Overall, the film was a fantastic representation of the power of rhetorical humor. Even in a time of great strife and anguish, rhetorical humor can turn the situation upside down, and add a positive annotation, even though it doesn't technically make anything better.