COMMUNICATION THEORY & CULTURE

ASSIGNMENT - ANALYSIS OF THE FILM "MODERN TIMES

(1936)“

Academic Year 2020-22

PRN No.: 20050341056 Submitted By: Yugchhaya Baid

Submitted To: Prof. Sudha Date Submitted: 26th September, 2020

Venkataswamy

Symbiosis School of Media & Communication, Bengaluru

Constituent of SYMBIOSIS INTERNATIONAL (DEEMED UNIVERSITY)
(Established under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956 vide Notification No. F.9 12/2001-U.3
of the Government of India)
Accredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade
Objective
To present a critical analysis of the Charlie Chaplin film "Modern Times” (1936) by applying the
concepts of industrialisation, social structures, mass society theory, fordism and media.

SSMC BATCH 2020-22

Text Dialogue

Summary
A silent comedy black and white film, written, performed and directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1936 in
which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The
movie starts at the Electro Steel Corporation, the Tramp is a worker on a factory conveyor belt. The
little fellow’s early misadventures at the factory include being choosen for a feeding machine (a time-
saving device so that workers may continue working during their lunch breaks). Everything leading to
the Tramp having a nervous break-down and throws himself down the conveyor belt into the belly of the
factory. After being released from the hospital, he quickly lands himself in prison as a communist leader
when he accidentally picks up a flag that has fallen from a truck amidst the workers’ parade. When the
Tramp prevents a jail break, life in prison becomes so pleasant (he is better fed, clothed, and sheltered in
the safe and secure prison than in the chaos of society during the Depression) that he is saddened to be a
free man.At first the Tramp is determined to return to jail, yet decides to remain in the world when he
meets an adolescent orphaned girl. Both the Tramp and the girl yearn for the American Dream of
domestic life, imagining themselves in a simple home in a suburban development. The Tramp is hired as
a night watchman in a department store but lands up in jail again when the department store is robbed
by some of his former factory- worker compatriots. The Tramp finds that the girl has acquired them a
“home,” in a dilapidated shack. The Jetson Mill reopen and the Tramp starts work there but promptly
loses the job in a labor walkout. Meanwhile, the girl had found work as a dancer in a café and persuades
the café owner to hire the Tramp as a singing waiter. The Tramp’s complete lack of skill tending to
tables in the café is compensated by his great success as a singing waiter. However, the police pursue
the girl, forcing them to flee their new jobs taking them to the open road.

The girl is discouraged but the Tramp’s optimistically says, “Buck up-never say die. We’ll get along!”
With that they walk off arm in arm toward the horizon, off to pursue a better life. It is the Tramp’s very
last shuffle down the open road. This time, however, he has a companion s his side.

SSMC BATCH 2020-22

Analysis
The irony of the film ‘Modern Times’ is that it is all about misery – human physical and psychological
misery in the face of the relentless modernizing industrial machine as an artistic commentary on
industrialization and its social effects.

• 1936, The Great Depression

It was a period characterised by large unemployment rates and social issues. It began after 1929's
financial emergencies, during Hoover administration. He couldn't discover viable arrangements and
individuals were increasingly more despondently. During that period there was the rise of Hoovervilles
(shanty town), renamed after the president. Individuals went in the city to dissent, they required social
measures. Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1932 and made arrangement of measures with the
New Deal yet individuals were still in wretchedness so they did demonstrated on the roads since they
had lost expectation. It's just from 1935 to 1938 that Franklin D. Roosevelt began a second New Deal,
more revolutionary, pointed toward helping workers. "Modern Times" released in theaters in 1936
precisely in the time of change between the first and the second New Deal. It portrays the atmosphere of
pressure where individuals lived in America before the second New Deal. This atmosphere with the
ascent of joblessness and the decay of everyday environments, is introduced through the account of two
common individuals faced to the occasions.

• Industrialization
The movie’s Main theme - apparition of new techniques of work, boss can watch the workers using
cameras and big screens even in the lavatory. In the very famous scene when Chaplin is swallowed by
the machines a metaphor describing the man and humanity are swallowed by industrialization. At that
time, people are supposed to work always faster and faster. A good production is fine, also is the
increase in consumption... but the necessity to work fast and by repeating the same movements all day
long brought new diseases among the workers. It led to unemployment because of the pain or to surgery
in the best cases. There was depression too because the work was less and less interesting at that period.

SSMC BATCH 2020-22

• Fordism
At that period, the aim of fordism was to bring people to do a particular task in order to speed up the
rhythm and increase the production. It was good for the economy because a big production means lower
prices so people are able to buy more. The movie denounces the way society has taken always more
further without consideration of the human being. More productivity in comparison with machines as a
consequence more unemployment. The fact that people are considered as machines. They have to do a
perfect work in a little amount of time and repeat the same movements for hours, days and years.
Machines are not just here for a big return (rendement) but also to facilitate the working conditions of
people.

• Mass Society Theory

Scene when he and the girl, dream of a simple home in a suburban development with a cow, dream of
life different from the one of the current situation of unemployment. Their actual house, reference to
Hoovervilles, slums. They can't afford a decent place to live in. They live in misery. Here the comic
devices are used but it shows people were demonstrating about the really bad situation at that time.
Scene of people trying to make their way to go into the reopened factory because they need job, shows
people’s struggle to get a job that pays decent wage to survive in the industrialised world. We can say
that the movie still has an impact because a lot of people could identify themselves in it. In
supermarkets for example, it is impossible for a cashier to leave their place to go to the lavatory and
neither can they answer to agressive people. It is still true that they have to work fast and correctly not
to be vired. It is to wonder how people can resist to such pressure. The risk of accident or disease

SSMC BATCH 2020-22

increases with repetitiveness and pressure at work. Timing everything can increase the level of stress
and have a bad impact on famillies, and (on a bigger scale) even on the country.

• Conclusion
The great depression “Modern times” was made at a time when people couldn't really stand back what
they saw. That is why they critisized it, because they thought Chaplin was making fun of them, and it
was the case. But not only that he wanted them to realize how they were manipulated and
instrumentalized people. So it is both critical and comic about the changes which occurred in America in
the 1930s. It depicts the Great Depression that will follow and the misery people will live with. Indeed
machines progressively replaced people at work, so people didn't have money to buy the new things of
that time or to go on holiday. The economy crashed down and this deep fall is described in the movie
through the description of the living conditions of the Tramp and the girl.

SSMC BATCH 2020-22

Sources

Movie - https://youtu.be/HAPilyrEzC4

Cover Image - captured from the movie.

Poster - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Modern_Times_poster.jpg

Image after the great depression - https://www.moviehousememories.com/modern-times-1936/

Many images presented are captured from the movie.

SSMC BATCH 2020-22