"I would like to introduce you to my good friend, Harvey"

      Harvey was an interesting movie. I like the black and white films more and more. It gives the movie character, I think. The first thing that I want to know is why was having an imaginary friend back in the day so scary? It was not scary for children to have imaginary friends and yet people thought that Elwood was a totally looney. People freaked out and ran the other direction as if they were looking at a ghost, but you can’t see imaginary friends so why were people running?

      Who was Harvey? Besides being a big white rabbit Harvey was a friend that everyone wanted to have. They wanted to have someone they could count on to be there for everything whenever they needed them. Friendships and relationships are a theme in this film. Harvey has his best friend that he would do anything for and Harvey would do anything for Elwood. Veta also really wants friendships. She gets Elwood out of the house because she doesn’t want her friends to think that she is a looney too. Her friends never come to see her because of Elwood. Mary could not meet someone for herself also because of Elwood.

      Everything happens for a reason. There are several parts in the film that shows this. If Veta had not been taken into the ward by mistake then Elwood would have been locked up forever. Also Mary would not have found someone. The last part of the movie where Elwood is at Charlie’s demonstrates this even better. If Harvey had not followed the doctor the Elwood would have not told the Dr. about how he met Harvey. The head Dr. also would have not believed Elwood otherwise about Harvey.  The most important part in the film, to me, was when the taxi driver wanted his money. If the judge and Veta did have money, then Elwood would have had that serum and been changed forever. He would have lost his sweetness and been normal.  At the end of that scene Veta finds her coin purse in her bag and blames it on Harvey. Harvey isn’t only a pooka but he is that thing. Not luck but that thing in life that everybody needs a little bit of. It could be faith in that everything always works out the way is suppose to or that everything happens for a reason. Veta gets to keep her brother, the doctor meets Harvey, Mary finds her mate, and Elwood gets to keep his best friend. Everything works out in the end of this film. One last thing, if a person is truly your friend they will stick with you no matter what.

The Purple Rose of Cairo: A movie within a movie

      The Purple Rose of Cairo was an interesting movie. At first was difficult to sift through everything to figure out what the movie was about. One of the characters that were within the movie said that this story was about a man and self fulfillment and a woman said it was a true love story. These ideas do play some roll into the film but The Purple Rose of Cairo was about choices and so is life. Life is about choices. These choices can be given through rough choices, logical choices, or easy choices. There is not always an easy answer. In the movie Cecilia had a rough life going through the depression and a terrible marriage. She meets Tom and he is but a fantasy. He is the man every woman dreams of having. In the end she has to choose between the two men. Tom represents the fantasy world (the place of happiness that exists only in her mind) and Jeff represents the real world. One of the characters said, “The most human attribute is the ability to choose.” He is right about that. Life is about the choices that we make. Cecilia needed to choose how she wanted to live her life even though she was in the Great Depression. She still has some freedom to do that. Tom was a fantasy character. He did not really have to ability to choose how he wanted to live his life even though he came out of the screen.

      Logically it was wise to chose Jeff because the fantasy world could never be.   She later finds out that Jeff doesn’t really care about her and this is the reality of like. It is real and deceiving. Everything in the movie foreshadows that she will live happily ever after. I think the ending is a contradiction of what happens in the movie.

      One thing that I found interesting in the film was the film itself. The actual film was in color. The film in the film was in black in white. This was done with some intent. Black and white could give the impression of dullness and color is richer. When Cecilia was in the film that world was so perfect that is was dull but when she was in the real world it was richer. This also means it could lead to deception and disappointed. She found this out with Jeff. But that is where the human ability to choose comes into play to make situations better.

      There was one thing that she did chose out of all of this and that was to live her life. She was going through the depression but she did not go back to her terrible husband at the end of the film. People in the depression needed a fantasy to help them get away from the rough time they were having. The movie is centered on the idea of giving people in the depression something to get away and that was film and cinema.  She also chose to go back into the cinema to escape from everything that happened. She created another fantasy, but this time it did not need to be external. She found that out with Tom. I think the take home message is that happiness is not a set of external circumstances. It is a place in our mind and we can go there anytime we want.

BIrdcage

The bird cage is a metaphor for keeping things locked in or hidden.  In this case it is homosexuality. People cannot hide who they are even if they tried. Again, identity is another reoccurring theme in the movies we have seen. Identify is so important because that is who you are and no one can change that. A gay person is part of who someone is and that cannot be changed. That is part of their identity. Being gay is a huge thing here in America. People don’t hide their identities anymore because it is becoming more widely accepted.

One thing I noticed was what the camera showed. There was not a lot of different setting to this film and that got me thinking.  Maybe the limited amount of settings reflects how limited things are or how limited mindset of some the characters?  My guess is that is show how homosexuality is only accepted in a small view and not widely.  Another thing I noticed was the characters names. They don’t really fit the characters and in past films we all know how important names are to the characters. All of the gay men have manly names and all of the manly men have gay names. When I say gay I mean feminine.

Also cross dressing another theme. This is important to comedy because it is an exaggeration and it helps get a point across in a less harmful manner. Look at Flip Wilson. He was famous for his character Geraldine. Using that knowledge in this film not only makes it funny but also helps with the rhetoric that is being used.

The point of this film was not to change the gay culture community but to help those understand the birdcage. This is where people can go and fit in without being judged or feeling ashamed of their identity.   

Life and death of Harold and Maude

This was a very interesting and compelling movie. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. I don’t think I have ever seen a movie like this. When it first started Harold was lighting candles and I figured it had to do something will a funeral. Next he hung himself. And now my expectations were thrown off. I didn't know what to expect after this.

One of the themes that I noticed was life and death. You have Harold who was depressed and was fascinated with dying. He found different ways to commit suicide and thought it was funny. This may be because of his mother neglecting him. I could be wrong but that is what I understand from it. And then you had Maude who was so full of life. Her favorite thing to do was watch plants grow; watch life. This is somewhat strange because they both went to funerals for different reasons it seems. Harold and Maude became friends after this. Harold had a friend but more so attention that he wanted.  Watching this movie was like watching a game of volley ball. A ball, which in this case represented life and death, that was being volley back and forth from one side of the court to the other.

One item that represented this life and death so well was the tree.  A living thing but it was dying. Maude say that the tree was dying and wanted to move it somewhere else so she could preserve its life. In way this symbolized her saving Harold. Harold needed saving.

When Harold discovers his love for Maude he is changed and moved by this. For once he was thinking of something other than death. He loves Maude so much that he wants to marry her despite her age and appearance. Then the movie takes a turn for the worst. It was Maude’s 80^th birthday and she took tablets to die. She reveals this to Harold and he begs her not to die. This was another twist in the plot from life to death. After Maude dies Harold drives his car off of a cliff. The audience thinks that Harold had performed his last and final suicide trick, but he doesn’t.  Harold chose to live and walks off into the distance dancing and playing his banjo.

I didn’t see comedy in this film but it was very moving and sweet. In a way, Harold carries on Maude’s spirit in the end. Not the best ending but a very good one.

Frankenstein

     So we have another black and white movie. The fact that the movie is in black and white adds to the atmosphere of the film. It emphasizes good and evil. Also, all of the lightning adds to the darks and evil feel of the movie, which in this case instills fear. The creature is afraid of fire. A small match but everyone else is afraid of him because he is big and ugly. Not to mention he has an abnormal brain.

     One big theme is acceptance and rejection. Frederick does not want to be compared to his grandfather who was a crazy man for trying to reanimate dead tissue. He does not want to be rejected by society like his grandfather was. Also the monster. He wants to be accepted by society but everyone fears him because he was once dead, ugly, and large. Of course people can’t accept what they have never seen before.

     Another big theme in this film is identity. This goes along with the first theme. Just like in Never Been Thawed and The Importance of Being Earnest.  Dr. Frankenstein wants to be recognized as his own man for his own successes and not the one that his Grandfather was known for. He is in denial and you can clearly see this when he teaches his class and he denies his students argument about his grandfather. Also, his name. He makes everyone else address him as Dr. Frankenstein with a long and some other changes.  Igor points this flaw out to him that if he pronounces his last name different then his first name should be different to. It would be Froderick and not Frederick. Igor then pokes fun at Dr. Frankenstein and says that him name is pronounces like eye-gor and not Igor. Dr. Frankenstein then says. “But they told me it was Igor”. Igor continues to antagonize him and replies,” Well they were wrong weren’t they?” Igor seems to be the only one true with his identify even though he is super ugly. After he makes amends with his creator he finally accepts him grandfather’s name as his own.

Never been thawed food or never been thawed people?

This movie was definitely the Napoleon Dynimite of the year in 2005, but much better I think. Maybe I have to watch Napoleon Dynamite again. I didn’t really think that movie was all that funny when I watched it back in middle school. On the other hand I didn’t think this movie was funny either but I did find it interesting. Half way through the movie, of course.

This movie isn’t about people who collect strange things like TV entrees and plates. It could be worse. They could be hoarders. People today still collect strange things such as pokemon cards, the game magic, or dungeons and dragons. There is something more to this movie. What I saw was what happens in our everyday lives. This movie isn’t really a documentary but more of what happens in life. Real life. Life happens this way. People have hobbies to keep them occupied. This gives them some type of meaning in this huge world and in the experience we call life.

This movie doesn’t seem to be plot driven but driven by the characters and their dialogue. More like the movie The Importance of Being Earnest. In Never been Thawed, the characters needed to have a hobby to help drive their everyday life because it seemed meaningless because they all had weird jobs. In The Importance of Being Earnest it was more about where you were in the social class that allowed you to do what you did or go where you wanted to go.

In both movies, the common theme is desires of the heart. In Never Been Thawed Al wants to be with Shelly but Shelly wants to be with Shawn. It’s a vicious circle. The desire of Shelly’s heart wants to be with Shawn but he doesn’t really want to be with her. Al wants to be with Shelly but she does not see him that way. There is no real happy ending in this film. Everyone goes their own way. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Ernest wants to be with Gwendolyn. Algernon wants to be with Cecile but Ernest won’t allow it. Everything works out in the end in this movie. This is what really happens in life. This is life. People have desires in their heart. They are either fulfilled or crushed. People have life ambitions and sometimes those don’t always work out the way people plan. In Never Been Thawed people were going through a real life situation and they way it was filmed helped get make that point more clearly. To me, that is what made the movie so moving. 

Idiocracy

     If there was a movie out there that was absolutely ridiculous it would be Idiocracy, but this movie did have some very interesting points. It was a satire about the future and society. First, when I saw the trash heap it made me think of Wall-e and maybe they took some of those ideas from this movie. In Wall-e the people lived on a ship because Earth was inhabitable and all of the people became so fat that they had hovering chairs. In this film, some of the ideas are similar. Earth is still partially habitable except all of the people became stupid.

     Realistically, you would think that society would get smarter from all of the evolving technology. In the movie the technology declined. For example, when Joe goes to see a doctor and the lady at the desk trying to help him could not figure out which button to push. That key pad she had looks like a toy that toddlers would use. It was so simple and yet she still could not figure out where to send Joe.

     Another thing was all of the names and advertisement. Like starbucks. It was something about hand Jobs. That just does not make any sense. And fudruckers became something else that I am not even going to type.  A lot of things in this film were contradictory and that is what was criticizing and satirizing in the film.

     Another thing I wanted to add was about their president. I am not sure if I interpreted this correct, but society had always been against having a black president. In the old days, people thought black people were not the most intelligent president. They could not even read, but in the film the president was reading a teleprompter.  So I wonder if the director did this on purpose. One thing I did notice about mis en scene in the film was when the president said he had three reasons that Joe was the guy to help he held up 4 fingers. He goes on through his list on three and when he got to three I was expecting a fourth reason but then remembered that he only said three. If I had not watched his fingers then I would not have reacted the way that I did. 

M.A.S.H.

This movie is supposed to be a satire of the Vietnam War but takes place in Korea. In case no one looked, M.A.S.H. stands for mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The movie stars Captain Trapper and Captain Hawkeye. They are both medical surgeons that work for the military and perform surgery on the wounded from the war. I thought the song in the opening scene was hilarious. It was called “Suicide is Painless”. Its funny because this movie is about war and people hurting and the song is talking about a type of killing that doesn’t hurt. I'm sure killing hurts no matter what for m it is. The song "Suicide is Paineless" is one of the motifs that occurs in the film. Another motif is Captain Hawkeye's whistle. I'm not sure exactly why he does it but the whistle is his "thing" in the film.

A couple themes in the film that I noticed was names. There is Captain Hawkeye, Captain Trapper John, Hot Lips. There are more but these were the ones that i picked up on. I know that Hawkeye got his name from his dad, Trapper was caught with a lady while having coitus, and Hot lips was also having coitus, but with Frank, and everyone in the camp heard her say that she had "Hot Lips". That was a classic scene. That is something you would do to someone during band camp. The reason everyone picks on her during the film is because 1) she is a "dim whit" and 2) picking on her is keeping everyone sane from losing their mind during the war.

An instance of irony that I saw was when Hawkeye steals the jeep and the MP jeep breaks down right as they begin the chase. This is classic because you can not chase someone in a broken vehicle. And so Hawkeye gets away. The scene immediately after this is funny as well because the Lieutenant asks Hawkeye if he stole the jeep. And Hawkeye responds, " No, its right there". The definition of to steel is asking without permission. So yes, Hawkeye did steal it, but the Lieutenant was completely fine with his explanation.

One last thing that i would like to point out is the last supper scene in the film. Now, I am not a religious freak but I did take art history and this was on of the pieces i had to know for my test so I recognized it. Painless decides that he doesn't want to keep going so he wants to commit suicide. So he has one last good time with his colleges before he goes. In the Painting, this was suppose to be Jesus last meal before he was betrayed by his disciples. In a way I guess painless was betrayed because he wanted to die but Hawkeye found a way to help him out with his lady friend.

Most of the funny things that happen in this film between sex and the relationships between colleges are all to help with the insanity of the war. After talking to a war veteran I am sure that my hypothesis is correct. Not everyone has gone to war and seen all of this. The authors did a good job of making this film into a satire because war is a serious thing and making the situations funny helps ease the idea of war onto the mind of the innocent.

Dr. Stragelove

     There were several things that caught my attention in this film. Colored movies were first seen in 1908. Color TV was introduced to the public in 1954 and in the 1960’s colored TVs was sold in large quantities. So why is it that this movie that was made in 1967 made in black in white instead of color?  I believe that the black and white gives the movie more of an ominous feel. Black and white also seems more serious but since it was a comedy the film did not have to be taken so seriously.

     It took me a while to get the plot of the movie, but a general orders an attack on the Soviet Union. Several different characters try to call off the attack “wing attack plan R” but cannot because the plane is set in a mode where they cannot receive other orders unless the correct three letter prefix is encoded first. This poses to be a problem because unless the B-52 bombers are stopped then this will cause the “doomsday device” to go off and the earth will be dead like the moon. This “doomsday device” has a half life of 93 years and is radioactive.

     I did not really think that this movie was very funny, but after viewing the movie I realized that it was a satire of nuclear warfare.  I was curious about the first nuclear bomb so I did some research. The first nuclear bombing was in 1945. This movie was made in 1967 so it makes sense that the film makers at this time would make a satire.

     One thing that was strange was the pilot. He was a cowboy and a rodeo cowboy at that. Also, one of his crew members was black. I didn’t see any other black people in this film. Also, in every shot with the pilots the song “when Jonny comes marching home” comes on. This set the mood for the pilots being patriotic.

A theme I noticed was gender roles. Again, we see a secretary sleeping with her boss and she is the only one in this film. If you think about it, war is a male dominated activity. There were no women sitting at the round table. There were only men. There were not any women flying the B-52 bombers either. Even the doctor was male.

     Another theme that I noticed was technology and communication. There was radio transmitter, the transmitter in the B-52, and telephone. I guess you could also consider the nuclear bomb technology to in the sense that it took science to figure out how to split the atom. Except for in one scene, every phone conversation was one sided. The audience does not know what the person on the other side of the phone is saying, so how do they know exactly what is going on or some message isn’t being relayed wrong. the secretary answers the phone in one of the first scenes. How does the audience know that she is not miscommunication the message to the general incorrectly? Another example of this is the B-52 bomber plane. Their transmitter becomes damaged so they can’t receive any messages to call off the attack. Communication is huge in everyday life and it is something people have to be careful with. In this case, the world ended up exploding because of miscommunication.

The Gods Are Crazy!

“The Gods Must be Crazy” is a very interesting movie. At first, I did not like it but the longer I watched the more drawn into the movie I became. I thought It was funny and interesting to watch that I watched it immediately after it ended. YES! I thought it was that good.

One of my favorite parts of this film is when Stan is trying to go pick up the new teacher. His car does not have breaks so he is constantly getting in and out of the car so that it will keep running. How classic is that? That is stuff that actually happens in real life. That is one thing that makes this movie relatable. You see a couple of things that would actually happen in life. Another part is when the truck gets stuck up in the tree. That I suppose would be situational humor instead of slap stick humor. There is not much slap stick humor in this film but it is still funny to watch anyway.

There are some points of rhetoric that caught my attention. The narrator opens up the film in the beginning with a scene of indigenous people. Immediately after, the narrator takes the audience to the city scene where people are rushing around.  You see people driving to their mailboxes instead of walking to them and other lazy things. This point could not have been made make point of how lazy civilized people are unless he showed both of those scenes. If only one of those scenes was shown then they would not have any relevance to the film and the parallel connection.  The indigenous people don’t have cars to drive and get their water. They have to look for it. They know where to dig to find water all sorts of different ways. Another thing that was interesting here is that people in the city have a complex life style. They have houses, food markets, and even coffee. By 7:30, everyone was on their way to work and 8 double zero means everyone better look busy. The indigenous people don’t have a sense of time like that. They take one day at a time and one duty at a time.

There are two different life styles that are being compared. The indigenous have one mission and that is to get rid of the bottle. The city people have several different missions in every single given day. They have to and learn to adapt to each situation (this term is really called acclimation).   Their life seems more complicated than the lives of the indigenous people.

Another thing I noticed was the voice of the narrator. To me, it seems like the director put the narrators voice in the film to imitate that the gods were telling you the story and not some random character. The title of the movie does have the word god in it so I am sure the narration was intended for some reason or purpose to that.

There are some things to think about that this movie conveyed. The life in the city does seem more difficult but we have a lot of convenient things. Also language is very important. There were several different languages that were used but ever one seems to get along just fine. Overall, this was an excellent and funny movie. I’m probably going to watch it again right now.

Ernest and Ernest

I must say, “The Importance of Being Ernest” was an exceptional movie. I wrote my expectations paper on this film and all of my expectations were met and much more. Upon reading the reviews I was not expecting this film to be as good as I thought it was after watching it. This movie did have humor but not slap stick humor. It was situational humor more than humor because someone said something and it was funny. That was one thing I liked about this film. The plot was very enticing. As the movie was progressing so was the plot. It kept me on my toes at least. That was something that the reviews did not convey very well.  Reviews are like flashlights in the dark. They can only show you sections of the whole picture. I am glad that the reviews I read did not disclose everything because it made this movie more enjoyable to view.

The highlight of the movie is when Algernon decided to be Ernest's younger brother by the name of Ernest and go to his country home. From here everything unfolds and the plot begins to pick up. In this part of the movie, there is a lot of rhetoric. For instance, they argue about this being the appropriate time to be eating muffins.

Some points of rhetoric; when Gwendolyn and Cecile were deciding on whether to forgive the men for lying about their identity.. They were using sound logic to come to reasonable and a logical deduction on whether to forgive Ernest and Algernon after misleading them on being different people.  The men’s responses for lying are intelligent and sweet but still don’t excuse for lying. The ladies then have a side conversation to further discuss their repentance.  But after rebutting they decide to forgive the men for their deed.

One thing that caught my attention was Cecile's fascination with knights in shining armor. There were several parts when she is day dreaming about being rescued, or being tied up, or imagining her knight riding across the fields towards her. The interesting part about this is when she is laying with the impostor Ernest/Algernon, she imagined him in armor. I'm not sure why this is part of the movie because it doesn't really make sense. Maybe it’s her dreams coming true and being revealed.

Another thing that was interesting was Ernest/Jack/John said he had a younger brother when in fact he was the younger brother the whole time. Maybe this was his subconscious being projected in the sense that he wanted to belong somewhere; ie friendship, family, relatives.

The last thing that I want to point out is when Aunt Augusta invites Ernest to her house for an interview so she may decide on whether he is suitable to be wed to her daughter, Gwendolyn.  In this scene, she interrogates him and writes down his responses. She gets to a point when Ernest says something that she doesn't approve of and begins to rip of his interview. You can't use a check list to make logical sound decisions. What if the paper has unrelated topics and misleads you that way. For instance, if you circle A and B then C must be true or untrue. I thought this scene was interesting because who would ever make a decision that way.

Monty Python's life of Rhetoric

        First, I would like to address that this movie was good to watch if you have not read or heard anything about it. At least, that is how I prefer to watch movies. I am sure that if I had read reviews, I would not think the same of the movie or expect too much from it. Also, I know this is suppose to be a comedic film but it took me well past half way to start laughing at anything. Most of the time I was just scratching the back of my head because I did not get any of the references or jokes.
The first thing I would like to point out is the gender roles. In the beginning, I did not understand why the mother was played by a man. After watching the film, I realize that it would not have been the same if it was played by a woman. Also on that note, in the movie I guess its woman’s right to want to have babies, which I though was interesting. A male character decided that he wanted to be a woman because he wanted to have babies and that because he was a man it was not a right to have babies. That was a little interesting. A man can have a baby. All he needs to do is find a nice lad and mate with her.
Another thing that stood out in the film was a couple of arguments. The beginning scene in the coliseum, a man was about to die and he said’ “I think I am about to have a cardiac arrest”.  It made me think to myself and say, "WHAT was that ?" I don’t think people knew was cardiac arrest meant back in that time frame. The fact that character said cardiac arrest made that scene funny.  A scene after that, Brian was painting words on a building. The guard came out and first interrogated on what he was writing and then was telling him how to write and conjugate properly. This scene was particularly funny because the people know what the word cardiac arrest but they don’t know something as simple as conjugation. That is just a contradiction and does not make sense.
The last thing that stuck out at me was when Brian was having an argument with the swarm of followers by trying to convince them that they are their own being and they can do whatever they want. The swarm of people are not listening, which makes that scene quite funny because they are trying to use rhetoric against him and pin him in his argument. The mother does this as well and that makes this scene just as funny because a whole swarm of people are answering and responding at the same time to both characters. What are the chances of that happening, which is funny because here the writer uses rhetoric effectively in trying to make is point in the arguments in that particular scene.
Overall, the movie was funny, but I would not put it on my list of movies to watch again. The one thing that I will say is there is a lot of good rhetoric in this film and that is what makes it enjoyable.

Will success spoil rock hunter? I think NOT!

I don’t know, will it? The movie begins with the advertisement of different products that don’t seem to work right. There is a shiny bran nee car, but its door falls off. New soap, but it creates mounds of soap. Shampoo that gets rid of dull hair but it actually gets rid of your hair. These things are absurd, yet funny. No one would buy these products, but it someone famous has it then you must have it too.
This film criticizes the famous, the wealthy, and everyone else that does not fit in that category. Everyone fits to conform to whatever is the newest and most popular. Rock Hunter becomes vice president at his company. There is a seen in the film when he puts on clothes that are not his and he is falling over because of the shoes and the clothes are swallowing him whole. This is a metaphor. Rock Hunter is trying to conform but it just isn’t working out. He is conforming to be Rita’s lover doll so that he may become vice president.  Another scene, Jenny wants Rock Hunter to only look at her so she does pushups until she falls asleep and then gets stuck that way. She is conforming to look better so that Rock Hunter will love her more.
Everyone in the film is looking for their happiness. Rita wants George but uses Rock Hunter to forget about him. Rock Hunter wants to be vice president so he uses Rita so he can provide a perfect marriage. What they do not realize is that happiness is not on the outside, but the inside. During the film, Rock Hunter refers to his pipe in the sense that he cannot keep it lit. This is obliviously a metaphor for his happiness. He cannot keep it lit because he is looking for happiness in the wrong place. Not in his pipe, but metaphorically speaking.
There is not a whole lot of laughter to where you fall out of your chair, but enough to help get the point across. Seeing the movie in a comedy sense helps others see the elements in movie in their lives. This movie does not just convey the problems in the lives of the character but also the lives of the audience. Society, anywhere you go, conforms to whatever is the most popular, to whatever the most famous person is doing, or to whatever they think will make them happy. Seeing this movie from a funny perspective helps one see these things in their life.

Modern Times

“Modern Times” depicts a man that struggles during the great depression between work and unemployment, but makes it through ever challenge that he was given. During his journey in the movie he finds love and the security of having someone that cares and to care about. In the end, they both find happiness and that makes challenges easier to work through.

Eight y percent of communication is through body language. It was impressive how Charlie Chaplin made a movie with little to few words and still conveys humor and his messages the way he did. Not all humor is verbal and in this case most to all of the humor was non verbal. I have seen a couple of silent movie but not as funny as this one or enjoyable for that matter. It does not take much to make someone laugh. There were some parts where I could not stop laughing and I thought to myself, “Why am I laughing this hard? I don’t laugh at stuff like this.” Charlie Chaplin uses a lot of slapstick humor, which makes the movie more enjoyable to watch. “Modern times” would have not been as entertaining to watch if there was no humor.

Also, it was also interesting to see where everything first started technology wise. They had assembly lines and huge machinery that had to be manually moved to work or pulled by a lever. Now days you don’t see technology like that. The scene with the feeder machine was silly, but it was funny at the same time. The technology during our time period does not malfunction to that extent it did in the movie. There are a few bugs here and there but not to the point where it will make a machine spark and catch on fire. Also, that is a ridiculous idea to have a feeding machine. It makes it seem like the workers are animals and don’t have a mind of their own to be able to function to work on machinery. On the other hand, that makes that scene extremely hilarious. First, it is an unrealistic idea because it would work just as well as the workers feeding themselves. Second, the machine breaks down and it is hysterical.

An issue that I wanted to bring up was the main character. I am sure the way the protagonist was portrayed was intentional. At the beginning of the movie I found it very peculiar that the nameless protagonist had a mustache that looked a lot like the mustache that Hitler had. I am not sure why it was done this way, but I am sure it was with a good reason because none of the other character had a mustache like that. The other peculiar thing I noticed was that the nameless protagonist resembled a clown. He had larger pants and his shoes were too large that also curled upward. Now, I am not sure if it was supposed to help the slapstick humor along or if it was for another reason. Either way, the movie was still funny with the way the characters were portrayed.