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¶ … Charlie Chaplin's classic movies was made in the 1930s. It is a film that, like all of Chaplin's films, have a strong social context. Though the protagonist here is a not a tramp, he is the quintessential factory worker -- an automaton, or a cog in the large machinery that is the establishment of the fruits of the Industrial Revolution.
Modern Times satirizes the burgeoning factory mindset that slowly but surely eroded what agronomies all over the world held dear. Add to the fact that at this point, the United States was still reeling from the Stock Market crash of 1929, where many thousands died of hunger, fields were left barren and hordes of hungry people traveled from pillar to post to find work. In fact, this movie can be seen in terms of the Joad family from the Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Tom Joad (the hero) eventually ending up working in such a factory.
While factories offered some respite, and indeed, eventually proved beneficial in the Allied effort of World War II, Chaplin's social conscience cannot accept that the Factory was nothing more than a vehicle for profit and that the poor workers would not be the ultimate beneficiaries.
Chaplin's role in the movie is a cog on the assembly line where he fixes nuts to moving machinery parts. Indeed, one of the funniest moments is the sheer panic when his work is out of sequence and he attempts to hide the nuts that he has to assemble but cannot keep up with the speed of the factory process.
Chaplin is also making another important, perhaps a prescient point. This is reminiscent of George Orwell's caution against the ever-increasing role of "Big Brother" that was the primary theme of several of his novels. In Modern Times, the factory boss uses two video cameras to monitor his workers and even something as natural as a smoke break is met by a severe reprimand.
In conclusion therefore, Modern Times is a comedy classic; but it also carries some very important social context.
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