MODERN TIMES (1935)

MODERN TIMES (1935)

(Drama, Comedy, Family) [G]

When I was a kid my dad tried to introduce me to a lot of older classic films. Needless to say, they bored me out of my freakin mind. The oldest movies I have grown to love all end up in the horror and sci-fi arena these days, but  I never stopped allowing myself to branch out. 

MODERN TIMES is Chaplin's last 'silent' film. We do get some dialog but it’s in very few scenes. We also do get music and sound effects with dialog queues as the film progresses. A character played by Charlie Chaplin simply known as “A Factory Worker” basically loses his freakin mind in the opening sequence and gets thrown into the hospital with a mental breakdown. When he gets out the authorities think he is the leader of a communist movement and throw him in jail. Eventually, he gets out and the tale spins on in what is basically the “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” of the 1930s. Along the way he meets a girl similarly down on her luck that has a real zest for life. Can she be the jumpstart “A Factory Worker” needs to get his life in order?

The movie is mostly a commentary on modern life and the challenges of overcoming the modernization of everything. However, that message gets kind of lost in the perils of “A Factory Worker’s” own reactions to life around him. Basically, a lot of what happens to him is his fault. He gets out of one predicament after another but manages to always get himself fired at the next job. I’ve had friends like that that never seem to land on their feet. While I do feel some sympathy for the character I can fully understand his boss's reactions as well. 

I was surprised to see an escalator in this movie and ended up learning something new. I guess I thought that they were fairly new, like maybe the 1940s or ’50s, but they were invented 77 years before this movie came out. This movie does have some impressive camera work and practical effects that look like they would have been a real challenge to pull off. We also get a lot of increased frame rate in this film making everything appear to move faster than it is, but you can still appreciate Chaplin’s ability to handle the physical aspects of the role. He’s brilliant in that perspective, but unlike many others, I didn’t find this movie all that funny, whimsical, yes, but not that funny. It’s like watching your kid's soccer game and they are getting trounced 46 to 0. Yeah, you can maybe see some humor in that if your kid is having fun, but it not likely “ha-ha” funny. 

There is one point where “A Factory Worker,” tells “A Gamin” the female lead in the film (played by Paulette Goddard) that she needs to “buck up”. These days I know women that will punch you in the nuts for saying something like that. I did like Paulette Goddard in this, she ended up having a very successful movie career and acted up until the early ’70s. 

Overall I really didn’t love this thing. Apparently, it even made authorities back in the day accuse Chaplin of being a communist in “real life”. For me while there are some impressive elements given the day and time it was made, a LOT of this movie drags which unfortunately made it hard to not check out. We have several scenes where actions are earthier redundant or repeated ad nauseam. 

For me, this is a 2 out of 7. While I can relate to the issues it’s bringing up, we’ve seen this type of thing since and we’ve seen it done better. I appreciate the effort, but can't recommend this one unless you are doing a Charlie Chaplin marathon.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF CHARLES CHAPLIN PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.