The Human and the Machine

 

Video 2.17: Work break from Modern Times.

This sequence shows Chaplin's criticisms of modern mechanization in its various forms. It begins by visualizing the psychological imprint, this conversionist area or ticks that remain after he stops his repetitive work. A man quickly takes his place, so the production can continue unabated. It’s interesting that he must clock out, in other words not earn wages, to use the bathroom here.

When he does try to do something supremely human and relax, the music is changed to something more soothing and less rhythmic to remind us that this is what he's trying to do. The big boss appears on the screen and screams. This is rendered through rear projection, and it gives us an almost Orwellian take on management. Management here is always watching and disciplining any expression of humanity.

The critique of visual mass media here is very prescient, almost Orwellian in its take. This is before the book 1984. The big boss in the bathroom is a nod both to the talkie, the screened image barking orders at the audience, and to the TV which was a new invention in 1936.

Chaplin believes both are an intrusion into private life. The big boss on the screen is menacing, coercive, and maligning. Chaplin uses talking pictures, dialogue, to voice the imperative commands of the boss. As opposed to his more poetic motion orientation to his films, talking is always about barking orders to us. This is part of Chaplin's critique of the voice as it would appear in film.