...
#39;s angst over the transition to
the technological advancement to sound was widely known, as
Chaplin felt that sound would compromise the entertainment
ideals and lead to a world made up of novelty-orientated
robots (Robinson 1985: pg 458).
The difficulty that Chaplin had in coming to terms with
the 'Machine Age' and the realisation that he could not
withstand modernisation forever is portrayed in Chaplin's
use of speech (however grudgingly) in 'Modern times'; an
aspect of the film that leaned towards favouring technology.
Modern technology is also shown to be an oppressive tool
used by upper management to monitor the workers. The
omniscient and omnipotent 'big brother' management is very
much a focal aspect of 'Modern Times', reflecting the fears
workers had of being turned into machines by managers who
controlled the pace of the production line and often speeded
it up. A two-way television screen, on-line audio and video
transmission ensure that all workers are monitored, to the
extent of a screen in the toilets from which the President
can urge the worker back to work, suggesting that these
controlling devices destroy all individual privacy:
"Hey, quit stalling. Get back to work. Go on."
The factory scene is therefore one of almost 'nightmarish
efficiency' in which the President can observe all parts of
the plant operation from his desk and issues orders to
increase production on the lines:
"Section 5 - Speed 'er up - 41"
then later:
"Section 5 - give 'em the limit",
as the conveyor belt is sped up to a frenzied pace,
Charlie makes a heroic effort to keep up. However, under the
intense strain of the job, Charlie is slowly driven insane
and becomes engulfed by the assembly line. Charlie literally
lies prone on the belt and is dragged, swallowed and eaten
up by the whizzing wheels, gears and cogs of the monstrous
machine. His body moves its way through the gears until the
production line direction is reversed and Charlie finally
emerges free of the machine; "Charlie has been devoured by
the machine age in the geary maw of a huge construction
device", (1995: David A. Gerstein
http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/machines.html).
The film proposes that this environment turns people into
programmed machinery.
The metaphor of society sucking the energy from human
individuals is a dark view of culture indeed. 'Modern Times'
depicts Charlie getting caught up in a machine, running
through the gears smoothly without any control over his fate
and ending up exactly where the machine leads. Chaplin's
metaphor was directly influenced by a Marxist understanding
of capitalism, an understanding that workers are divorced
from their work product and alienated from themselves,
becoming, instead of full human beings, a cog in a machine.
Charlie has been literally devoured by the machine age,
unable to protect himself from the huge construction device.
Charlie has been ingested by the greedy machine which is
unable to stop consuming and producing. Charlie is unable to
defend himself against the processes of industrialization
and therefore is involuntarily carried along by the
industrial age. The machine, in its own excesses, devours
Charlie, identifying him as an industrial product instead of
the human he is.
Another comic example of the dehumanising impact of
industrialization occurs while the mechanic is stuck in the
machine. As Charlie struggles to free him, the lunch whistle
sounds and he immediately
...
