POLITICAL

THEORY
CIA 3

MODERN TIMES
AND MARXISM

ANJANA J ANTONY
1834137
1MEP
Modern Times is a 1936 comedy satire film written and directed by
Charlie Chaplin in which his most iconic character, The Little Tramp
came to silver screen for the last time, as a character who struggles to
survive modern, industrialized world. The movie is hilarious and a
profound social commentary. In the movie, Charlie Chaplin represents a
utopia of capitalistic promise. The opening title of the movie itself is “A
story of industry, of individual enterprise- humanity crusading in the
pursuit of happiness.” Through the film, Chaplin’s character, a worker in
massive industrialized assembly line factory, is depicted as a proletariat
of the 20th century. The film theory is filled with Chaplin’s medications
of shrewd social and political critique, but the most important aspect is
the remarkable dramatization of the concepts of Karl Marx’s Das
Kapital and his theory of alienation.
The film is set during the Great Depression. The opening sequence of
the movie is a clock ticking to 6, followed by a shot of a flock white
sheep led to be slaughtered, but there is a black sheep among them, thus
portraying the protagonist, an outsider. Then the movie most iconic and
important part starts, the factory worker in the Orwellian factory. Marx
explains in Capital that the only way for the capitalist can create surplus
is through the use and control of labor power. The laborer works to
produce his own value, to earn money for his own living. That is the
amount the capitalist pay the laborer and the capitalist can get surplus
when the worker works beyond. So if the capitalist is paying the laborer
less, they are forced to work for more time and efficiently.in other words
the amount of profit earned by the capitalist is dependent on the control
over the time of the labor. Here, in the movie the job of tramp is to
tighten the bolts. The president of the company is supervising the whole
production. According to Marx, “Moments are the elements of profit”.
So the in the movie the president is ensuring that not a minute is being
wasted. He also is seen controlling the speed of the production, thus
increasing the productivity of the workers even though they are
struggling to keep up the pace. When Tramp takes a washroom break, he
goes to the washroom and lights a cigarette, but the president’s face
appears on the screen and he yells at him. This is just what Marx said,
“labor must be expended with the average amount of exertion and the
usual degree of intensity; and the capitalist is as careful to see this is
done, and the capitalist is as careful to see this is done, as he is to ensure
that his workmen are not idle for a single moment.” In the washroom
break sequence we can notice that Tramp, before entering the washroom
hands his work to someone else and punches him out of the work. But
then too, he is asked quit stalling. The next scene is one of the funniest,
the experiment of Billows feeding machine on Tramp. Here, the feeding
machine is to “eliminate lunch hour, increase production, and decrease
your overhead.” But the machine turned out to be unsuccessful. The
president says that it was unpractical. The main point to note here is that
it is the president who have a say in the lunch of the workers and not the
worker. Marx says, “From the instant he steps into the workshop, the use
value of his labor power and therefore also its use, which is labor,
belongs to the capitalist”. Throughout the movie we can see how
Chaplin has portrayed how everything is based on time; the opening shot
of cloak, Tramp punching cloaks to prove that he is doing his job as a
night watchman. The police system is also in this society to ensure the
control of time. In the movie we can see that police is guarding the
factories to quell strikes, breakup communists and even prohibiting
loitering. Tramp is caught as he was seen with a red flag. He is taken to
the prison where time is even more structured.
Marx in his book has described the factory worker, “here it is the
movements of the machine that he must follow. In manufacture the
workers are the parts of a living mechanism.” In the movie, Tramp is
trying to keep up with the pace of the conveyer belt in the assembly line.
If he miss a piece, he needs to speed up. It also affects the work of the
other workers. At a point to keep up with the pace, Tramp jumps into the
machine, swallowed by gears and he can’t stop himself from tightening
bolts. When he comes out, he is changed to a human machine, as he has
passed his breaking point, he rebels, he sprays oil, pull gears, dancing
and running in the streets. He is then taken to the hospital.
Coming to the Alienation theory of Marx, it is the theory that workers
will lose their control of the work in the modern capitalism. This means
depersonalization of work. He no longer learn a skill and start a firm, but
becomes a part of a big machine of mass production.in Marxist theory of
alienation, there are 4 types:
 Alienation of the worker from their product: here the workers don’t
even know what they are working on. Tramp is just tightening
bolts. His work becomes a small part of a big product which he
doesn’t even own or know.
 Alienation of the worker from the act of production: here the
worker don’t have control over the process of production. In the
assembly line, human just becomes a machine. He can’t control or
keep up the production. This alienation is pushed further in the
feeding machine scene.
 Alienation of the worker from their species essence: every
individual has the desire to survive and connect emotionally to
other beings. He can thinks and he is the “subject” always.
Creativity is very fundamental. But in capitalism, there is no scope
of creativity for the workers.
 Alienation of the worker from other workers: here each worker is
working in his own isolation. There is no cooperation or
socializing. The feeding machine is to eliminate the lunch hour
which is the only time when the labor connects with other workers,
thus alienating the workers more.
So what Marx explained through academic word, Chaplin portrayed
through slapstick comedy. The movie is a clear critique of capitalism.

References
Das Kapital by Karl Marx
www.theperioherymag.com
www.screenprism.com