Modern Times | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The final cinematic appearance of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character is also the legendary filmmaker's first talkie, though he uses sound sparingly and with predictable artistry. Made at theheight of the Depression, in 1936, the film explores the dehumanization and dislocation that accompanied the advent of the industrial age. It provided modern film with some of its most iconic images and a song, "Smile," that became an instant pop standard.

The film's theme is spelled out in the foreword that runs after the opening credits: "'Modern Times.' A story of industry, of individual enterprise—humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness." The film then opens with an overhead shot of a flock of sheep rushing through a chute. The sheep quickly dissolve into a similar shot of industrial laborers surging out of a subway station on their way to the factory.

A long sequence set on the factory floor then ensues. The Little Tramp, Chaplin's impish everyman, is shown without his traditional baggy pants, derby hat, and cane. Instead he wears the gray coveralls of a common assembly line worker. The modern industrial laborer's predicament is symbolized by a scene in which the Tramp is sucked inside a huge machine while oiling it, passing through its myriad gears like just another part in the mechanism. Though he escapes that jam, the Tramp is soon driven mad by the dull routine of factory life. He goes berserk and is hauled off to an asylum. Thus ends the second reel.

The rest of the film continues on in episodic fashion. The Tramp is jailed after he inadvertently becomes part of a pro-union march. Released, he meets up with the Gamine (a ravishing Paulette Godard), an orphan girl who has run away from home to avoid being placed in an orphanage. The two tramps fall in love, and Chaplin's character vows to get them a home "even if I have to work for it." He fails at aseries of jobs before the police, inevitably, come looking for the runaway girl. Forced to flee, the pair return to the open road, where they join hands and pledge to "get along" somehow.

Modern Times was promoted by the studio as Chaplin's first sound film, but that is something of a misnomer. Chaplin uses sound only to serve the film's theme of technology and dehumanization: spoken voices are heard emanating from mechanical devices, the factory boss is heard urging the Tramp to get back to work, and so on. Chaplin's actual voice is heard only briefly, singing a nonsense song. Special sound effects and an original musical score enhance the pantomime.

A number of the images from Modern Times —the Tramp caught up in the machinery, waving the red flag at the head of a labor demonstration, and the final poignant shot of the Tramp and the Gamine walking uncertainly off into the sunset—have become indelibly imprinted on the pop cultural consciousness. As the final undeniable master work of one of the twentieth century's greatest directors, it continues to generate criticism and commentary within the world film community. Fittingly, in 1989, Modern Times was entered into the National Film Registry, a program created by the Library of Congress to preserve films deemed "culturally, historically, or esthetically important."

Flom, Eric L. Chaplin in the Era of Sound: An Analysis of the Seven Talkies. New York, McFarland and Company, 1997.

Mitchell, Glenn. The Chaplin Encyclopedia. London, B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1997.

This is the complete article, containing 576 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).