Criterion Challenge 2024 | 7/52 | Most popular film on your watchlist
Modern Times. A story of industry, of individual enterprise — humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness.
Chaplin’s riff on À Nous la Liberté, while little more than a remake with Chaplin’s Little Tramp inserted, has its own charms and memorable gags. Also, I can appreciate any film with class consciousness at its core being as popular as this movie was and is.
That said, I doubt Chaplin, being the slick capitalist he was, had any motive beyond capitalizing on a movement. Anytime any social realist issues at the heart of the movie came up, he dismissed them outright, saying he only wanted to satirize industrial life.
The film debuted nearly a decade into talkies, so Chaplin’s silent Little Tramp also functions as a man outside of history. Again, this is not out of any intent from Chaplin, as the character had lines until he couldn’t make them work. Also, the character sings gibberish — the only time the Little Tramp has a voice in a film.
I appreciate Chaplin’s massive influence, but I never get much pleasure from his movies. I think I’ve tried to watch most of them at least once. This movie will be the first I’ve finished, and that’s because this is hands down the best Chaplin movie.
Stray Thoughts / Spoilers
- I don’t understand the point of the auto-feeding machine
- I like him going through the gears — very Looney Tunes
- The tramp putting cocaine on his food is wild
- Little dog!
- The boat going out to sea is funny
- The roller skate gag is iconic
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