It seems the people who read my reviews always give the positive "helpful" votes for those films I praise, while they punish my comments for the films I don't like. I guess the same will happen now since "Modern Times" is the highest praised Chaplin film on IMDb.com and I'm giving it only a 7 out of 10. It's a very good film, a brave and interesting satire on the great depression in USA, but Chaplin's other films like "City Lights", "The Gold Rush" and "The Great Dictator" were in my opinion superior and much more enjoyable.
"Modern Times" starts with a frame of a herd of sheep, then cutting right into a mob of nervous factory workers, pointing out how the capitalism and the industrialization are treating people like a bunch of slaves. Chaplin's Tramp is one of those workers who looses his sanity from non stop work and gets fired. He then meets a poor girl, lands in prison, gets bailed out for helping stop a jail break and starts finding new jobs, just to get fired again. The story doesn't flow as smooth as some other silent classics from the famous actor/director and is made out of little bits and events which aren't connected. Apparently Chaplin made this without any script, and it shows. Also, some of his Tramp's goofy jokes today seem a little outdated and childish.
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Still, putting the flaws aside, this is a quality film with human message. In today's mechanical age it even seems somewhat visionary since the poor, jobless couple back then can easily be found even today on the streets. But not to say the film is without humor, like when the Tramp picks up a red flag on the street that fell from a truck and gets mixed up with a communist leader or when the feeding machine proves to be a real useless disaster, something the machine haters will love to hate.
Grade: 7/10
"Modern Times" starts with a frame of a herd of sheep, then cutting right into a mob of nervous factory workers, pointing out how the capitalism and the industrialization are treating people like a bunch of slaves. Chaplin's Tramp is one of those workers who looses his sanity from non stop work and gets fired. He then meets a poor girl, lands in prison, gets bailed out for helping stop a jail break and starts finding new jobs, just to get fired again. The story doesn't flow as smooth as some other silent classics from the famous actor/director and is made out of little bits and events which aren't connected. Apparently Chaplin made this without any script, and it shows. Also, some of his Tramp's goofy jokes today seem a little outdated and childish.
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Still, putting the flaws aside, this is a quality film with human message. In today's mechanical age it even seems somewhat visionary since the poor, jobless couple back then can easily be found even today on the streets. But not to say the film is without humor, like when the Tramp picks up a red flag on the street that fell from a truck and gets mixed up with a communist leader or when the feeding machine proves to be a real useless disaster, something the machine haters will love to hate.
Grade: 7/10