Modern Times

It brings me joy that people continue to discover 1936's MODERN TIMES.  What a triumph, this movie. Writer/director Charlie Chaplin sought to indict the encroachment of technology on the human spirit.  This would also include the invention of the "talkie", a film that included sound.  Chaplin's silent films were immediate classics, minted for the ages with their seamless blend of comedy and pathos.  By the early to mid '30s, talkies were becoming the norm in Hollywood.  Chaplin decided to keep the dialogue cards and his actors' lips moving without their voices.  For the most part.  His compromise was to have a character speak through a video monitor and himself sing a silly song.  Otherwise, we get a plethora of sound effects, one of which is a gurgling stomach, achieved by the director himself blowing bubbles into a pail of water.

The "Little Tramp" returns.  We first see him haplessly toiling in a factory with giant gears and a conveyor belt that moves impossibly fast.  His bosses never feel he or his co-workers are fast enough.  When a company offers a machine that will feed the minions as they work (allowing more production and less time off the clock), the boss is intrigued.  It doesn't work out, in one of several iconic scenes in MODERN TIMES.

The Tramp causes nothing but destruction in his wake, and soon suffers a breakdown.  Then a hospital stay.  Then several trips in and out of jail.  Along the way, he meets a beautiful young woman named Ellen (Paulette Goddard), recently orphaned and separated from her sisters.  She too is dodging the law, for stealing bread and fleeing truant officers.  The Tramp covers for her a few times, and soon they are companions.   Each scratch for food and shelter, yet remain hopeful.

I have to admit that I teared up a few times during their scenes.  Namely when they try to get domestic.  The Tramp gets a job as a night watchman in a department store and brings Ellen along.  She dons expensive bathrobes and falls onto a luxurious bed, in a temporary bid for the "good life", so foreign to her.  Later, our couple take up residence in a shack that threatens to collapse with every step.  These scenes show Chaplin's amazing gift for well timed slapstick (that frame rate helps) and sentiment.  The director and his star (who married in real life) show great affection for each other.  Goddard especially brings across a true loving spirit that is just so rare to see anywhere, in any era.  Love conquers all, it's true, even as that plank over the door hits you on the head.  Or when the officers come a' calling. 

MODERN TIMES succeeds in so many respects. The comedy - including a gag involving cocaine (!) -  is still top notch.  Chaplin's points of how technical advancements destroy people's livelihoods and quality of life are very evident, yet always tempered with humor.  The laborer is the clear hero here, but don't accuse Chaplin of Communism (which does play a part in some of the jokes) so fast.  The individual and his/her limitless optimism drive this film, right down to the famous closing scene.  As stated, I'm pleased young people are still seeing this movie.  Its central themes are frighteningly more relevant than ever before.