Immortality is a powerful concept.
For any individual, work or event to achieve this status, it not only must be exceedingly brilliant, but also must transcend its own time period, capturing the universal emotions and aesthetics of each subsequent generation. "Modern Times," its main character and the man who created it all earn the right to be called immortal.
Today, Charlie Chaplin's beloved tramp is the most common image associated with the great screen legend and perhaps the greatest icon in all of cinema. "Modern Times" is the story of both Chaplin and the tramp confronted with a rapidly changing world, and how both triumphed the only way they knew how.
The majority of the film's signature shots come in the first 20 minutes, with the tramp struggling on the assembly line. Chaplin conceives a factory so absurd that one can't help but be entertained while absorbing the obvious satire.
The workers' motions, indeed, their lives, have become automatic. The machine, like the modern world as Chaplin sees it, never stops. When the tramp sneezes, it takes every effort to catch up with the conveyer belt again. When the tramp finally loses it and begins spraying his colleagues with an oil can, they chase him throughout the factory. They are, however, so indoctrinated with their duties that all he must do is turn on the machines, and, forgetting they can exert free will, they return to their stations.
The most famous image from this film shows the tramp caught in the gears of a huge industrial machine. It's amusing, technically impressive and represents the overall assertion of "Modern Times": The machine which man himself is becoming endangers the individual spirit.
Following his nervous breakdown, the tramp begins to wander the streets, a familiar location for the adorable little man. While crossing an intersection, he finds himself at the head of a labor march and soon lands in prison, charged as a Communist conspirator. After helping the police foil a jailbreak, he finds a new life of penal luxury and, soon enough, parole.
While strolling past a storefront, the tramp sees a police officer arresting a gamin (Paulette Goddard), "a child of the waterfront who refuses to go hungry," for stealing a loaf of bread. The tramp, partly because he longs for the comfort of prison and partly because he is enamored of the young woman, confesses that he committed the crime.
A witness informs the cop of the truth, and despite the generous effort of the tramp, the gamin is taken into custody. Determined to return to the penitentiary, the tramp goes to a fine restaurant, eats all he can and then advertises the fact that he can't pay. Soon, both individuals wind up in the paddy wagon, from which they escape together.
Immediately after their escape, the tramp and the gamin rest under a tree. There, he describes to her the house and life they will have one day, once he finds steady occupation. His desire to provide for her is noble, but the unrealistic nature of his vision reemphasizes how alien this life is to him. The tramp envisions having a house where a cow comes to the door every morning to provide them with free milk.
She finds them a small, desolate shack, which both of them view as paradise. And, eventually, the tramp finds work as a night watchman for an emporium, and he sneaks the gamin into the store, finding her the most comfortable beds on which to sleep. Later that night, several of his former co-workers from the factory break in, and the tramp treats them to all the store has to offer. For this, he once again finds himself in prison.
While he's away, the gamin finds a job as a cabaret singer, and when the tramp is released, she lands him work as well. After so many futile strivings in so many fields, the tramp finally succeeds as, of all things, an entertainer.
It is no secret that Chaplin resisted synchronous dialogue. "Modern Times," made almost a decade into the talkie era, is Chaplin's last primarily silent film. Ironically, when the tramp speaks for the first time, all that comes out is gibberish.
Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in the film (as well as composing the score), and does so with a poignancy and social consciousness that is seldom found in film. It's usually reserved for poetry.
An opening caption describes this film perfectly. It's "a story of industry, of individual enterprise - humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness."
And, by the way, the movie is hilarious. That doesn't mean it's relatively funny for a 60-year-old silent film. The movie is really damn funny, period. Comedy is comedy, and Chaplin is a master.
In the end, the characters are still homeless, penniless and jobless, with no clue where they're headed. But that doesn't matter. Those things have become unimportant. The times seem insignificant.
In Chaplin's trademark shot, we see the tramp walk one more time, one last time, for once not alone, toward the sunset, toward the future, toward the unknown and, indeed, toward immortality.
(See schedule on page B3 for showtimes.)
Grade: A+
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