Social Issues in Charlie Chaplin's - Modern Times

The film "Modern Times" by Charlie Chaplin can be viewed as a social commentary that uses comedy and laughter to depict the negative effects of a mechanized future, the hardships of an industrialized future due to the Great Depression, and how consumerism is important in understanding social control. 

The four phases of "Modern Times" - sequences in various settings such as a factory, prison, department store, and dance hall - function as four broad themes that work within a radius of a central theme. It's crucial to understand the historical backdrop when watching the film. Americans were suffering with the impacts of the Great Depression in 1936, the country's longest and worst economic crisis. Many Americans were poverty stricken and unemployed at the time, and this is evident throughout the movie.

The film portrays Chaplin as the Tramp as a worker in a large, industrialized assembly-line factory. The Tramp gets involved in labor conflicts, has a few run-ins with the law, falls in love, and is mistaken for a communist throughout the film. The opening scene of the film, which takes place in a strange factory where all workers are monitored and overseen by huge Orwellian monitors, emphasizes his subject of technology overthrowing and enslaving man. Furthermore, the humans work at the machine's pace, which is changed multiple times for comic effect, resulting in a scenario in which the Tramp has a nervous breakdown. The character of the Tramp is adorable. Despite numerous errors, such as accidentally sending a boat out to sea or being devoured by an industrial machine, he adds a layer of societal commentary. Despite his good temperament, the Tramp always seems to be in trouble. For example, he is imprisoned numerous times throughout the film, once for being a communist, which he is not. The brutal nature of the work at the factory leads to Chaplin’s character suffering a breakdown and being sent to an asylum. After his recovery and release from the hospital, he is arrested mistakenly and sent to jail. His presence at a mental asylum and a prison is, therefore, the direct consequence of working at the factory. The jail scene, on the other hand, symbolizes Chaplin's wish to live within the walls of prison, where he is presented with the ready availability of shelter and food, as opposed to the world 'out there,' where poverty and unemployment are prevalent condition. The Tramp character determines that no matter how horrible his life is, he can still be joyful due of the love he has for the people around him, thanks to the use of music to establish the mood. The song that was used was "Smile".

Despite the fact that they are dark and sad messages, Charlie Chaplin's film did not end in this way. Regardless of any statements he sought to make about class divisions or working circumstances, his film finishes on a joyful note. The tramp character determines that no matter how awful things are in his life, he can still be happy because he loves the people he surrounds himself with.