Reflection of the Movie Modern Times
By: Somaya Fedayee
Social stratification is one of the most serious global issues. “In all complex societies, the total stock of valued goods is distributed unequally, with the most privileged individuals and families enjoying a disproportionate share of income, power, and other valued resources.” (Grusky, 1994, p.1) In a stratified society, people are perceived differently and most importantly they will be given unequal rights and not everyone will be able to use the same sources as the privileged groups and causes poverty and conflicts. One of the main goals of global citizenship is that everyone should have similar rights and to decrease poverty. Therefore, in this paper I discuss the movie Modern Times by of Charlie Chaplin, which shows London in the period of great depression in which citizens were greatly stratified. I think this movie shows a clear picture of how social stratification negatively effects the lives of people in a comedy way. Thus, I decided to write about this movie and the great work of Charlie Chaplin.
Modern Times is a masterpiece of Chaplin which was released in February 25, 1936 in USA. The director and main character of the movie is Chaplin. The movie is part silent comedy and is black and white. This movie shows Chaplin, the filmmaker shows the way people lived in those times. Despite being funny, this film is very meaningful with many metaphorical points which need lots of discussions. Despite its age, it is still important. Also the way film is shot and directed is discussable which I have discussed all of them in the below.
At the first part of the movie Chaplin behaves strangely because of doing too much work. Chaplin tries to wrench anything he sees like his coworker’s noses and button. On the other hand, the boss is by contrast comfortable. It shows the split between capitalists and proletariats in a capitalist society. While the boss is so free and does not have any work to do, scientists bring a new machine that they made for feeding the workers. Chaplin is used for experiment of the machine. He is treated badly as if he is just a tool for his boss. Later, Chaplin himself disappears in the machines. It shows that in the machinery system of those times the only thing which was important was production and money. People are dehumanized and need to work like machines. People became parts of the machines.
Chaplin was sent to hospital as a mad person and after coming out, he was in jailed because he was accused as a protester. Later he came out of the jail but went to jail again. Between his imprisonments, he met an orphan girl Paulette Goddard. Both of them were trying to have a good life but faced a lot of troubles. These two are sample of people living during the Great Depression trying to live and survive with difficulties of their time. At their time, the classes were so different and capitalists were the dominant group of the society. Chaplin also shows their stratified society by remaining poor until the end of the movie. In contrast to the other films of Chaplin that he is poor at the first but later he becomes rich and has a good life, in Modern Times, Chaplin remains poor till the end. By this, he wants to show that there was no hope for people to get to a better life during the great depression. Because there is no class change in Capitalist society and people remain at the same level of life.
The other point is about the sound and the shooting of the film. The movie is black and white which makes it more focused. Moreover, the movie is not completely voiceless. Some people have voice in the movie while others don’t. The boss has sound but Chaplin does not. Chaplin shows that the only people who had voice at those times were capitalists but proletariats were voiceless. So how could they talk and ask for their rights? On the other hand, Chaplin cannot balance the different parts of movie. The part in the factory is very carefully made and he has worked on each scene of the movie a lot. But the part out of factory is not that focused and worked on. Most parts of out of factory are just a simple story of Chaplin and Goddard living and not many stressful points. Also at the part that Chaplin holds the flag and is caught as a protester. I do not get what he means by this joke and why he decided to make this joke.
Finally, Chaplin tries to show the way people lived in the Great Depression period in the movie Modern Times. He is successful in this point which being comedy and at the same time meaningful is the best strength of movie. Chaplin shows the extremely stratified society of that time by jokes and metaphors such as despairing in the machines and being unvoiced. Finally, he finishes the movie while still being poor. This movie is interesting and I can recommend it to anybody who is interested to know about how people lived during the great depression.
References
David B. Grusky. (1994). Social Stratification. Uris Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853
