Modern Times (1936)

Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”

In 1927, Alan Crosland released the first sound film with The Jazz Singer. By 1931, most of Hollywood had transitioned to making primarily sound pictures. Writers from all over the country began to migrate to Southern California to participate in the exploding industry that would be come to known as the world’s stage for films. In 1931, Charlie Chaplin released what many people thought would be his final sound film, City Lights. However five years later, Charlie attempted one last stamp on this forever remembered art form with his masterpiece Modern Times. Although, Modern Times is not totally a silent picture, as it does contain specific people talking and sound effects throughout. This film is told from the perspective of Chaplin’s most iconic character, the Tramp. It is through this perspective that the film is mostly silent. Sadly, this was the last time an audience was treated to the beloved Tramp, making his last appearance ever on film. 

After the Great Depression ended in 1933, America was back to work as its large industry was back to cranking out streamlined products for its nation’s consumers. Those who ran the market felt that the best way to avoid another market crash was to increase the productivity of its capital and provide more and more means for the average consumer to spend money; by doing this, the market was not only flowing with cash, but those in charge of these means were securing their prosperity and providing safety for themselves in the event of another catastrophic financial implosion. However by doing this, this caused factories around the country to minimize wages & maximize output. Laborers around America were going on strike to combat the working conditions that were provided to them. This new world for America provided a glimpse into what would become of the nation in the future, a nation as a machine, full of laborers as its mechanical parts outputting financial security for those already with wealth and power – further separating the classes and making it more and more difficult to break free from this oppressive structure. This America is the stage for Chaplin’s Modern Times.

Chaplin opens the film on the image of sheep as the move in a herd. The image then transitions to a group of people leaving the subway, then to a transition of those people entering into a factory for work. This opening sequence by Chaplin illustrates the notion that these modern people who must work in this factory are equivalent to sheep in their society. They are not individuals seeking their own means, but rather cattle to be moved around and commanded. This already sets the stage for how these collective individuals and even our expected protagonist will be treated and used throughout the film.

We are then shown the office of the President of the factory and then the man who sits inside the office. The man, dressed in a suit, is putting a puzzle together, who then starts to read the newspaper. The fact that the man is putting a puzzle together and reading a newspaper lends us to the notion that he does not actually do any work. Even if he is head of the company, the luxurious nature of his nonchalant meanderings suggests that he is not required to put forth any effort into what he is doing, even though he is reaping the profits of those who are coming in to work for him – the fundamental understanding of capitalism; the American philosophy that would reign for the entire century. The President then turns to switch on some sort of television as he is able to flip through different channels showing us different areas of the factory and the men at work. He then rings a bell and calls one of the workers to the front of the screen as he tells him to speed up one of the sections. With this, Chaplin is able to illustrate the absolute power the President has over his capital and his workers. It also suggests that this story takes place in a not too distant future, as the ability to monitor through televised screens and even speak through the screens was not a function of 1936 society. The “Modern Times” as suggested by the title seems to be a warning; a warning that notions the oncoming future of capitalism and industrialization and the mechanisms of control that will come with it. 

We are then introduced to the Tramp, who is working on an assembly line turning bolts on metal plates. The men on the assembly line are all making the same repetitive motion, as Chaplin is suggesting that these men are more akin to the mechanical machines they work alongside than to the common understanding of the functions of human being. The Tramp is continuously not able to keep his place in the assembly line, as he cannot keep up with the sheer speed at which he is expected to work. Chaplin is suggesting with that the common worker must work beyond the limits of what they are able to and are forced to adjust to these oppressive conditions. After the Tramp is given a break while someone takes his place in the line, he keeps making the same repetitive motion as he walks to the restrooms. He is so accustomed to the conditions he finds himself in that he cannot shake them when he isn’t expected to. Once he enters the restroom, he instead decides to light up a cigarette and smoke – that is, until he is interrupted by the President on the screen behind him ordering him to stop wasting time and get back to work. Chaplin continues to illustrate the oppressive nature of the average worker, who cannot even take a proper break from their rigorous and constant working. 

It is also interesting to note that the only character who speaks throughout most of Modern Times is the president of the company, who is constantly giving orders. His ability to speak seems unprecedented, given the nature of a Charlie Chaplin film. This seems to represent two distinct ideas. The first idea it represents seems to be that in this industrialized capitalistic ‘modern world,’ the only person with the power is the one in charge of the capital. The laborers and workers are silent in the film, thereby representing their lack of power as they do not hold the figurative power of speech. This ability to speak in this sense seems to represent the new landscape for the modern world and the machinations that come with it. The other idea this ability to speak represents is that of the talking picture. Not only is this new modern world harboring the growing allocation of wealth and power to those at the top of capitalistic pursuits, but also harbors the new world of the talking picture. By 1936, silent pictures were all but dead – and Chaplin is having to adjust to this new world by including speech into his work. Chaplin seems to draw parallels to this new modern world through both its rise in industrialism and its rise in talking pictures, a world both Chaplin and the Tramp must grow accustomed to.

The President of the factory is then introduced to a new machine that can feed his workers while they work. The purpose of the machine is to “increase production” and “decrease overhead.” The President then tests out the machine on the Tramp at the factory’s lunch hour. This new machine represents the growing ability to increase the productivity of the factory and oppress the workers. Due to the competitive nature of capitalism, those who own means of capital must cut around every corner in order to become more efficient and produce more than their competitors.  

While working on the assembly line, the Tramp misses a couple of bolts to screw as he chases the bolts down the assembly line shaft. He then gets caught up in the belts and gears of the assembly machine in one of the most iconic shots of all time. Chaplin uses this shot to illustrate the larger point of the movie, that all people in these modern times are just part of the machinery of this newfound industrialization. The mechanical nature of their work and their direct orders to act in the best interest of industry makes them more like the belts and gears of a machine and less like the human beings they are.

After getting caught in the machinery, the Tramp then has a nervous breakdown. He goes around the factory chasing people and pretending to screw in bolts. His tireless and unrelenting work has caused him to mentally break. He also goes around spraying people with oil – visually lubricating all the gears (people) of the factory. His mental break prompts the police to arrive and send him to the hospital for treatment. 

After getting released from the hospital, the Tramp wanders the street looking for work. This comes at no avail as many places have closed down. This notion that all local places being closed is probably a hint that the factory is eliminating any and all smaller competition, causing people either to try to survive on the streets or forcing them to conform and join the factory. Chaplin philosophizes that the industrialization and capitalism of modern times will force conformity, disallowing any competition to these economic philosophies. This is also shown through the street demonstration that the Tramp accidentally becomes a part of.  It is a workers union protesting the poor and oppressive working conditions of the factory and its industry. Being misunderstood as the union leader of this protest, the Tramp is arrested and sent to jail. This also illustrates the extreme power those with capital have – as they have the ability to utilize the law and police enforcement to break apart any workers’ revolution. Throughout the film, Chaplin is able to show how law enforcement acts as the mechanical gears of the society, just as the laborers act as the mechanical gears of the factory – both are controlled by capital leaders, able to turn anyone under their economic means into motorized mechanisms to do their bidding and to keep their industry working as a well-oiled machine. 

We are then introduced to the gamin, an impoverished woman who roams the waterfront stealing food from carrier boats and giving them to poor children, and even brings bananas back to her motherless sisters and her unemployed father. The gamin represents the American citizen who refuses to conform to the industrial new world and therefore is shoved to the margins of society – forced to fend for herself by acting outside the law as a means of survival. After her father is killed in a street accident, her sisters are taken away to an orphanage and the gamin is left completely alone.

In the meantime, the Tramp is being held imprisoned for being a suspected communist leader. The prison guards blow a whistle and the prisoners must leave their cell and stand upright until the whistle is blown again for the prisoners to march single file line to the lunchroom. Chaplin uses the mechanical motions of the prisoners marching single file to illustrate the visual congruency between the mechanical nature of the factory with the mechanical nature of the prison, even complete with a bell or whistle being blown by a commander. 

Chaplin is able to show the viewer just how inescapable the automation of human beings is becoming. It appears that if you cannot conform to the conditions of the industrial world, you will be made to anyway by the sheer power of law and governmental enforcement. You will be made to become a machine of industry either way. 

During a prison break, prisoners trap guards in their cell to escape. However, the Tramp disarms the prisoners and helps the guards out of their cell. In doing this, the Tramp is given the opportunity to not only leave prison, but to get a written note recommending him for work. He first joins workers as they are building a boat, only to accidentally let the boat fall off its ramp and sink. After being fired, he wanders the street again and decides that if he were still in jail, he would at least have a place to sleep and food to eat – so he tries to get arrested again. With this, Chaplin is able to illustrate that the industrial new world forces people who try to live outside of their designed system to go without resources as a means of forcing them to conform or to get a arrested and join the industrial workforce regardless. This is exactly how the gamin gets arrested as she tries to steal bread to eat. The Tramp tries to take the blame by admitting to stealing the bread himself, only for the gamin to be taken away anyway. He then goes to a buffet and doesn’t pay for his meal and even invites a police officer walking by to arrest him, which he does. After getting arrested, the Tramp meets the gamin again in the patty wagon and helps her escape. She begs him to come along, which he does. 

The Tramp and the Gamin wander a suburban neighborhood and see a well-to-do middle class family outside their home. The Tramp and the Gamin dream about what it would be like to be that middle class family, with an idealized life with plenty of food and material possessions. Through a daydream sequence, Chaplin is able to show the viewer the idealized life that these two could have if they only conformed to the new industrialized society around them. In this daydream sequence, the two of them are able to pick fruit off tree limbs that grow outside their window, cook a nice juicy steak and even own a cow for them to milk. The Tramp and Gamin become so memorized by this luxurious lifestyle full of resources that the Tramp vows to attain work once again so he can afford to provide this American dream. 

The Tramp uses his letter of recommendation to get a job working at a common shopping vendor. He uses his newfound job to sneak the Gamin into the multi-story store so that they have a place to stay. While they are there, they have some fun with some of the items they could be using if they had the idealized American dream and enough money to buy from the store. They try out a pair of roller skates as the Tramp glides around the room. In the shot below, the Tramp (without his knowledge) continuously almost falls over the side of the open floor room (which is open because it is under construction). The visual gag of the Tramp not knowing he could drop to his death at any minute seems thematically congruent with his current lifestyle he lives in. Because he is not competent enough to conform to the modern world, he is continually putting himself in danger of falling into the depths, both economically and literally. His impoverished lifestyle cannot be sustained in the world he lives and the ultimate consequence is that of being pushed away to the point of not being able to survive at all.

While staying at his new worksite for the night, the Tramp runs into a trio of men who have snuck in to rob the store. One of the men turns out to be a factory worker that the Tramp used to work alongside. The man explains to the tramp, “We’re not robbers – we’re just hungry.” With this, Chaplin is able to show that even with the conformity of the new industrialized world, workers are still oppressed to the point of being desperate for basic human necessities. The new world provides the promise of a better life, but still forces its participants to be overloaded with work and underprovided for. The Tramp drinks with his old comrade and passes out.

The Tramp is found the next morning passed out in the clothing department and is promptly arrested and jailed for ten days. The Gamin greets the Tramp as he leaves the jail and tells him that she has found a new home for them. She takes him to the edge of town to an abandoned shack that she has decorated up. Chaplin is able to use the inside of the shack to illustrate the living conditions under which those on the fringes of society must accustom themselves to. 

In order to aspire for a better home, the Tramp gets a job repairing machinery at the steel factory. It is obvious that the Tramp is completely inept at this job as well, as he bumbles around making constant mistakes. However, before he can get fired from this job, all of the factory workers go on strike – as the Tramp is once again is forced back onto the streets and even gets arrested once again. After showing the Tramp getting arrested once again, Chaplin cuts to a shot of a merry-go-round. This shot represents the circular and repeating cycle the Tramp is caught in – acquiring a job and means of survival, then getting booted from the job to being back on the streets, getting arrested while being a vagrant and striker on the streets, going back to prison, and repeating that cycle. Chaplin is suggesting that the Tramp is caught in a vicious cycle, much like the repetitive gears of a machine. It seems as though the Tramp cannot escape this merry-go-round his society is stuck in – forcing him into a state of compliance to this new mechanical automation of human beings. 

A café owner spots the Gamin dancing in the streets, noting that she would be a good addition to the café entertainment. Whe then cut to the Gamin dancing in a golden dress in a café ballroom as people applaud. This introduces us to the next indoctrination of the industrial world – the industrialization of entertainment. Just as the steel factory has become completely automated by both machines and mechanical humans, so too does the entertainment industry. It is with the final sequences of the film that Chaplin is able to bring the concept of the industrial modern world into the realm of the entertainment industry that he too is a part of. With the introduction of sound pictures, Hollywood was able to turn itself into a well-oiled machine – producing talkies with such expedience that it almost seemed as the steel factory does in the film: focused on the mass production of the final product with those in power of it cutting every corner to garnish more and more power over its workers. 

The Gamin is able to get the Tramp a working position at the café after he is released from jail once again. The Tramp must act as a waiter and performer, and is told that he must sing on the ballroom floor. The Tramp hesitates, just as Chaplin hesitates in adding sound to his pictures. The Tramp goes out onto the floor and at first begins to just dance and pantomime, to the crowd’s displeasure. The crowd begins to present such an uproar that the Tramp finally concedes and conforms himself to the modern world. In order to get economic security and the American Dream he has promised for the Gamin, he begins to sing – and it is the first time Chaplin’s voice can be heard on film. Just as the Tramp must concede to the expectations of this newfound society and become another cog in the machine of industry, so too must Charlie Chaplin concede to the new world of talking pictures and become another voice in a sea of ambient films. Chaplin plays it playful on the surface, but below the surface it appears almost melancholic. As a viewer, you do not want to see the Tramp bow down to the powers of the new world – but the Tramp must do it or risk not surviving. As a viewer, it is difficult to watch Chaplin conform to the new world of talking pictures, as Chaplin’s signature characters and his pantomiming represent the film industry of the late 1910s and all of the 1920s. Charlie Chaplin was the last foundation of what the film industry stood on, and watching him conform to the new world instils in the viewer the sense of defeat and the sense that a new modern world must come for them as well. Because in the end, a new modern world is always around the corner – forcing us to change just as the Tramp and Charlie have to change. 

However, the concession is cut short when the police arrive to arrest the Gamin with a warrant for vagrancy. The Tramp helps her escape capture as the two of them are thrown back into the unemployed world. There seems to be no place for them to go any longer. They are trapped in this endless cycle and must accept defeat. The Gamin asks the Tramp what the point of trying is to which he responds, “Buck up – never say die. We’ll get along!” He leads her to the open road, a destination unknown to either of them on the other side of the horizon. The Tramp looks at the Gamin and mimes “Smile!” as he hand-gestures to put a smile on. This will be the last thing the character of the Tramp will ever say, as he and the Gamin walk forward down the uncertain road, as they walk away from the camera into the horizon. This shot will be the last time we will ever see the Tramp again. Chaplin uses this shot to send the Tramp off into a forgotten past to make way for the modern world – a world that no longer has a use for the Tramp. A world that has no use for those who will not conform to the industrialization of capitalism and a world that has no use for silent films any longer. The Tramp walks away into the horizon of the past, leaving the modern world all together. His last message provides the antidote to this modern world and to the frustrations of life all together – smile!