Chaplin’s ‘Modern Times’ a perfect fit in ’05

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MODERN TIMES, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, 85 minutes, not rated. Shows tonight only, weather permitting, Pickering Square, downtown Bangor, sundown. Lawn chairs advised. Free.

The second film in the River City Cinema Society’s Smiles on a Summer Night series is, fittingly, Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 silent comedy, “Modern Times.” It’s the movie that features Chaplin’s classic song, “Smile,” so poignantly in its closing moments.

For a series that wants you to smile, that’s a nice touch, but it’s hardly the reason the Society chose the film. They chose it because it’s a great movie, a funny movie, and an important movie, the last film in which Chaplin’s indelible character, the Tramp, would make a screen appearance.

As written, directed and composed by Chaplin, the film is second only to his best movie, “City Lights,” with Chaplin once again using comedy as that great leveler, his weapon against a world he feared was changing too quickly to sustain itself and to consider the needs of the common man. The film’s opening title card states that this is “a story of industry, of individual enterprise – humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness.”

But what was to become of happiness in an era where machines – presumably designed to make our lives easier – were in fact making them more harried and difficult? Chaplin wasn’t against technology – as a filmmaker, he relied upon it – but he did believe that technology should at least live up to its promise and benefit mankind.

In 1935, when he began to formulate and shoot “Modern Times,” it was clear to him that this wasn’t the way things were going. He viewed the rise of industrialization and technology – and the men getting wealthy off each – as real dangers facing society.

If left unchecked, if not confronted and questioned, these gleaming, intoxicating machines we created to improve our lives might one day ruin our lives. Ironically, they would control us.

Was he so far off the mark? Nearly 70 years after the film’s premiere, we live in a world in which identity theft, Internet hackings, corporate streamlining, plant closings, computer viruses and kids being murdered for their iPods are the direct result of technology’s hold over us. The flip side of the equation is that technology has extended our lives and, in many ways, improved them.

It’s this paradox that makes “Modern Times” so relevant to today. It’s a movie that was for the times and ahead of its time.

In explaining the undercurrent that drives the film, I’m afraid I’ve made the movie seem dark and heavy, which isn’t the case at all. In its attack of technology, “Modern Times” is often blisteringly funny, with Chaplin, billed here as a factory worker, serving as the wrench tossed into the machinery, which eventually drives him mad.

When we first see him, he’s toiling at an assembly line at Electro Steel Corp., working with untold focus to tighten a never-ending series of screws. When the machine stops, Chaplin’s character can’t do the same. He becomes a twitching wreck, so programmed to fasten bolts, he begins seeing them everywhere, most notably in the buttons securing women’s dresses, particularly those at their breasts, which apparently need tightening, which he sets out to do. You can imagine the mayhem this causes.

Later, in an effort to get more work out of his workers, the president of the company (Al Ernest Garcia) considers a more efficient way to get his crew through lunch. The idea is to use a machine that, once a person is strapped into it, will automatically feed them with haste, literally pushing the food into their mouths while barely giving them a moment to swallow.

Thing is, the machine is only a prototype, with the bugs hardly worked out of it. When the Tramp is selected to try it out, the machine naturally goes haywire, with sparks igniting, food flying. You can imagine the mayhem this causes.

A highlight of “Modern Times” is Paulette Goddard as the gamin, an orphan of mayhem, indeed. With her parents dead and her two younger sisters taken into protective custody, she hits the streets running, where she collides with the Tramp after stealing a loaf of bread. What blooms between them is delicate and touching, the likes of which never seem canned because Goddard, at this point, was Chaplin’s real-life wife.

As their relationship evolves, the anarchy deepens, with each character forced to rail against the law, technology and industrialization if they are to survive. But can they survive? Is there anything in this world that’s for them?

Turns out there is – entertainment – with each realizing a talent for performing that might be enough to get them steady work. It’s here that Chaplin makes his most cutting comment on technology.

When “Modern Times” was released, the silent era in which he had thrived for so long was a relic, with sound now the mainstay. Chaplin knew audiences wanted to hear the Little Tramp’s voice, but how to do so while remaining true to his beliefs?

Just how won’t be revealed here – it would kill the fun – but let’s just say that when the Tramp finds himself in the position of having to sing for his supper, what comes out of his mouth is exactly how he feels about the modern times in which he lives.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, Weekends in Television, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Are We There Yet? – D

Assault on Precinct 13 – C+

A Very Long Engagement – A

The Aviator – A

Bad Education – A

Beyond the Sea – C

Birth – B+

Boogeyman – D

Bride & Prejudice – B

Coach Carter – B-

The Chorus – A-

Collateral – B+

Constantine – C-

Cursed – C-

Darkness – D+

Diary of a Mad Black Woman – C-

A Dirty Shame – B

Elektra – C-

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Finding Neverland – C

Flight Of The Phoenix – C-

Hide and Seek – C

Hostage – C-

House of Flying Daggers – A

Ice Princess – B-

The Incredibles – A

In Good Company – B+

King Arthur – B

Kinsey – A

Ladder 49 – B

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – D+

Man of the House – C-

Maria Full Of Grace – A

Meet the Fockers – C

Million Dollar Baby – A

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous – C+

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

National Treasure – C-

The Notebook – B+

Ocean’s Twelve – C-

The Pacifier – D+

Prozac Nation – C

Ray – A

State Property 2 – D

The Sea Inside – A-

Taxi – D+

Team America: World Police – B-