Rating: 3.5/5
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