Modern Times (1936) is one of my favorite movies. It is a silent film made by Charlie Chaplin. There is no speaking dialogue through the entire film, but Chaplin’s expressive body language and facial expressions made the film enjoyable and effective. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. I think the film was trying to show us the exploitative nature of capitalism. A lot of scenes in the film expressed it. A typical one is the appearance of the feeding machine, showing that capitalists try every possible means to screw the workers, even squeezing the labors’ mealtime (the purpose of using the feeding machine is that make labors being able to keep working during their mealtime). Also the film criticized the mechanized way of living, by using some interesting scenes, like the compare between the flock of sheep and the crowd of labors in the beginning of the film.
I find the film relevant to the economic and cultural situation today. The Great Depression, during when Modern Times was made, was a severe economic depression. At that time, one of the most severe problems that people had to face to was unemployment, and the film reflected this. Nowadays, by the technology developing faster and faster, machines take the place of human labors in many industries. Hereby unemployment is becoming a serious problem again now. In nowadays society, a lot of people are on the verge of nervous breakdown since they cannot bear the pressure of live and work, just like Charlie suffers a mental breakdown beside the accelerating assembly line in the film.
My favorite scene was when Charlie was told that he is free. There was a scene of words said that “ Now you are a free man”, then Chapin showed a sad face and seemed restless, and the next scene had words said that “ Can’t I stay a little longer? I’m so happy here ”. This was very impressive to me. It showed a strong contrast between the life inside and outside the jail. Inside the jail, a man is not free, instead of that he can live comfortable and carefree. While outside the jail, a man can get freedom, with living hard and facing to many problems like unemployment. The scene showed a serious social problem by just few second, which is smart and impressive.
The Official Blog of WRTG 3007, Summer 2012 
It’s funny that you chose to write about this film. For my history class, we have to analyse the meaning of the scene where the feeding machine is introduced as a response to the Industrial Revolution. I think Chaplin is a genius and so entertaining to watch. Through his expressions and the malfunctioning machinery, no words are needed to express the absurdity of such an idea. This film argues the need for business places to remain personal to its employees, and not treat them as machines.
This is important then as it is in the current modern times, people often function as machines, go to work, make dinner, watch TV, go to bed, repeat. This film reminds us that there is much more to life and if we are not meant to act as machinery.