Modern Times

Reception

World premiere of Modern Times (1936), New York

Modern Times is often hailed as one of Chaplin's greatest achievements, and it remains one of his most popular films. It holds an approval rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 108 reviews, with a weighted average of 9.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A slapstick skewering of industrialized America, Modern Times is as politically incisive as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious."[10] Metacritic reports an aggregated score of 96/100 based on 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[11]

Naming it the Best Film of the 30s Decade, Flickside writes: "Chaplin's Modern Times is a thoughtful critique on the anxieties of modernization dealt with pathos and humour." Contemporary reviews were very positive. Frank Nugent of The New York Times wrote: "'Modern Times' has still the same old Charlie, the lovable little fellow whose hands and feet and prankish eyebrows can beat an irresistible tattoo upon an audience's funnybone or hold it still, taut beneath the spell of human tragedy ... Time has not changed his genius."[12] Variety called it "grand fun and sound entertainment".[13] Film Daily wrote: "Charlie Chaplin has scored one of his greatest triumphs."[14] John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that Chaplin "manufactures some superb laughs ... In all, it's a rambling sketch, a little at loose ends at times, sometimes rather slight in effect, and now and then secure in its rich, old-fashioned funniness."[15] Burns Mantle called the film "another hilariously rowdy success".[16]

Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene strongly praised the film, noting that, although there had always been a bit of a dated feel to his previous works, Chaplin "has at last definitely entered the contemporary scene". Greene noted that, whereas prior Chaplin films had featured "fair and featureless" heroines, the casting of Paulette Goddard suggested that his female characters might be presented with more personality than previously. He also voiced concern that the film would be considered to be a Communist film when in reality Chaplin's message was predominantly apolitical: "[Chaplin] presents, he doesn't offer political solutions."[17]

French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Maurice Merleau-Ponty named their journal, Les Temps modernes, after it.[18]

Modern Times earned $1.8 million in North American theatrical rentals during its release,[2] becoming one of the top-grossing films of 1936. It was the most popular film at the British box office in 1935–36.[19]

The iconic depiction of Chaplin working frantically to keep up with an assembly line inspired later comedy routines including Disney's Der Fuehrer's Face (Donald Duck alternately assembling artillery shells and saluting portraits of Adolf Hitler) and an episode of I Love Lucy titled "Job Switching" (Lucy and Ethel trying to keep up with an ever-increasing volume of chocolate candies, eventually stuffing them in their mouths, hats, and blouses). The opening of a fantasy sequence in the film, in which the unemployed factory worker trips over a footstool upon entering the living room of his "dream home" with the Gamin, inspired a similar opening to The Dick Van Dyke Show.

This was Chaplin's first overtly political-themed film, and its unflattering portrayal of industrial society generated controversy in some quarters upon its initial release. Writing in The Liberal News, the official magazine of the British Liberal Party, in October 1936, Willoughby Dewar observed that Modern Times "should be seen by every Young Liberal. It is, among other things, a piece of first-class Liberal propaganda."[20] In Nazi Germany, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels banned the film from being shown because of its alleged advocacy of communism.[21][22]

The film exhibits slight similarities to a lesser known 1931 French film directed by René Clair entitled À nous la liberté (Liberty for Us) – the assembly line sequence is an instance in that both films depict it, but in different ways. The German film company Tobis Film, hungry for cash, sued Chaplin following the film's release but to no avail. They sued again after World War II (considered revenge for Chaplin's anti-Nazi statements in The Great Dictator).[23] This time, they settled with Chaplin out of court. Clair, a friend and huge admirer of Chaplin who was flattered that the film icon would depict a similar subject, was deeply embarrassed that Tobis Film would sue Chaplin, and was never part of the case.

The film did attract criticism for being almost completely silent. Chaplin feared that the mystery and romanticism of the Tramp character would be ruined if he spoke, and also that it would alienate his fans in non-English speaking territories. His future films, however, would be fully fledged "talkies" – although without the character of the Little Tramp.

Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance has written of the reception and legacy of this classic comedy:

Modern Times is perhaps more meaningful now than at any time since its first release. The twentieth-century theme of the film, farsighted for its time—the struggle to eschew alienation and preserve humanity in a modern, mechanized world—profoundly reflects issues facing the twenty-first century. The Tramp's travails in Modern Times and the comedic mayhem that ensues should provide strength and comfort to all who feel like helpless cogs in a world beyond control. Through its universal themes and comic inventiveness, Modern Times remains one of Chaplin's greatest and most enduring works. Perhaps more important, it is the Tramp's finale, a tribute to Chaplin's most beloved character and the silent-film era he commanded for a generation.[24]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

  • 1998: AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies – #81[25]
  • 2000: AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Laughs – #33[26]
  • 2007: AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #78[27]

The Village Voice ranked Modern Times at No. 62 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics.[28] In January 2002, the film was voted at No. 58 on the list of the "Top 100 Essential Films of All Time" by the National Society of Film Critics.[29][30] The film was voted at No. 74 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008.[31] In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 63rd-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll[32] and 20th in the directors' poll.[33] In the earlier 2002 version of the list the film ranked 35th among critics.[34] In 2015, Modern Times ranked 67th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.[35] The film was voted at No. 12 on the list of The 100 greatest comedies of all time by a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017.[36] In 2021 the film ranked 49th on Time Out magazine's list of The 100 best movies of all time.[37]


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