Modern Times

Modern Times (1936)
IMDB #83 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027977/]

The Gist:
This is maybe the closest Charlie Chaplin ever got to an art/social commentary film. I mean I haven't watched the Great Dictator yet so maybe I'm speaking too soon, but you get the idea. It also happened to be the most insane of all its pictures, at least through the first half. Unfortunately it calms down a bit. However, when Charlie Chaplin was having a nervous breakdown in the factory and sniffing cocaine in jail and trying to get himself arrested after leaving jail the movie was shaping to be a masterpiece. Perhaps it still is, but I have some reservations. First of all, you have these little artistic decisions in the beginning of the film like the juxtaposition of the workers heading to the factory and cattle being herded (fairly reminiscent of Strike by the way), also have this weird quality in the beginning of the film where all human voices are issuing from technology but throughout the rest of the film they are traditionally silent film characters in person. There's an idea of symbolism in all this, the first example fairly obvious, the second an idea that we can only be given voice and shape through the technology that has begun to control us (vaguely reminiscent of some Vonnegut themes). However, these artistic leanings peter out as the film's insanity dies down and a more traditional love story rises from the ashes. Also, I do love the film as a whole but I wish it would have saved this whole settling down thing for its conclusion. Instead you have a sort of "pull yourself up by the boot straps" kind of resolution that just rings false to me. You know, thinking about it the film really is one of Chaplin's best though. Maybe I'm being too nitpicky.