Watching Modern Times

Chaplin thought that tragedy and ridicule, or tragedy and comedy, were never that far apart. So keep an eye on, as we watch Modern Times, about how this is shown. How is Chaplin showing that proximity between tragedy and comedy, or even tragedy and ridicule?

Here are some questions to think as the basis of Chaplin’s comic appeal?

• What is the basis of Chaplin's comic appeal?
• Why do we, as viewers, identify with him and feel for him?
• How is he able to move us?
• What is it about him and his Tramp character that makes us identify with him so well?

And if Chaplin believed that the essence of cinema was rendering of emotion through motion, what internal thoughts, feelings, or desires are externalized and visualized for us as viewers? How is he rendering that emotion through motion in this particular?

Here are some themes and things to think about as you view the film. Modern Times is essentially a film in four acts, or four parts, each of which are roughly equivalent to his old two-reel comedies, about 20 minutes or so, a piece. In each of these, it's a kind of episode where he goes through a different trial or tribulation.

The impact of mechanization on mankind is a very prominent theme in the film. This is a crucial thing to think about in each of these four episodes.

• How is it treated in these different jobs?
• How was the Tramp, as a kind of everyman, able to escape the problems of modern industrial society?
• How is it possible that these problems get other characters down in the Chaplin universe, yet Chaplin, somehow, is able to stay above it, stay above the fray, and not be dragged down into the kind of nastiness like many of the other characters in his movies?
• What does he rely on in order to do that?
• What is the film trying to say about other aspects of modern life, such as domestic life? Or public life? Or labor life?

All of these things are being commented on in a comedic way. Chaplin is making important arguments, doing important cultural work here, through the genre and theme of comedy.

Finally, knowing Chaplin's antipathy toward mechanizing the voice, as we talked about his desire to not do talking pictures, it is important to note when the spoken voice is used in this film and how it is heard. In each case, it is very telling, and it is something that we'll talk about in the post-film critic’s corner.

• What is the context in which we hear Chaplin’s own voice at the end of the film?
• What is the situation, and what is he saying?

All of these things are Chaplin trying to comment on the nature of the spoken film and on the nature of this film and the way that it represents the nature of social life.

One final thing to think about as you see this film; most Chaplin films, such as Gold Rush, that followed this kind of cyclical structure had the Tramp entering society at the beginning of it, alone on the road, and ending in the same way as he began. So in the image below, you can see a typical ending of a Chaplin film. The Tramp who begins by entering into society, tries to find a job, is thrown out because of the chaos that he creates, ends alone at the end. This was part of the serial aspect of it. This is not the case in this film.

One of the things we'll discuss after you watch the film is what this means? How are we to view this in relation to the context of the film and in relation to the history and trajectory of the Tramp as a character?