Modern Times

Movie: Modern Times (1936)

AFI List #81 on the 1998 list, #78 on the 2007 list

My List #30

Starring: Charlie Chaplin

My rating: ˜˜˜˜

This was Charlie Chaplin's last silent movie and in fact he actually sings in this at the very end (okay, I know that doesn't make it a silent film). This was also his last movie that his well-known character "Little Tramp" would be in a movie. Chaplin said that the universal appeal of the character would be lost if they added dialogue. The movie is set during the Great Depression and portrays the desperate employment and the conditions many people faced.

The movie starts with Chaplin working as a factory worker on the assembly line, but the monotony of the job and the increased production rate finally forces him to have a mental breakdown. He is sent to a hospital to recover. However, when he is released, he is wrongfully accused of being a leader of Communist rally and he is thrown in prison. While there he accidentally eats cocaine (mistaking it for salt) and while in his dilusional state he walks into a jail break and takes out the convicts. He is proclaimed a hero and released for his actions.

So, he's back on the street, jobless. After failing to get a job, he is desperate to go back to jail, because it's so quiet and peaceful. He runs into an orphan girl and they (after being arrested) escape and dream of a better life. In an effort to realize this dream, he takes a job as a department store night watchman. He soon loses that job and is arrested. Once released, the orphan girl found a rundown shack for them to live it, and he finds another job in a factory that just opened. But after the first day, the workers go on strike and after accidentally hitting a policeman with a brick he gets arrested again.

While he's in jail this time, the orphan girl gets a job as a cafe singer, and when Chaplin is released she gets him a job as a singing waiter, even though he doesn't sing. When it comes time for him to perform, he lost his shirt cuffs (on which he wrote the lyrics to the song) and then has to make it up. The lyrics are just a bunch of nonsense words, but his song is a hit with the dinner crowd. The police then show up to arrest the orphan for her earlier escape. The orphan and Chaplin manage to elude the policeman and finally we see them walking down a road at dawn towards a brighter future.

Now, not only did Chaplin direct, produce, write and star in this movie, he also wrote the music! That surprised me. Even more so, the love theme for this show was later given lyrics and became a hit for Nat King Cole and has been covered by other stars including Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Josh Groban and Michael Buble, and I actually own a couple of these covers!

Modern Times is considered one of Chaplin's greatest achievements. The scene of him working frantically to keep up with the moving assembly line has been parodied and redone multiple times. I enjoyed watching it and it ended with such hope.