Social issues in Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”

 

The Charlie Chaplin film "Modern Times" can be seen as a social commentary that employs humour and entertainment to depict the dehumanising effects of many aspects of modernity, including industrialization, bureaucracy, urbanisation, and law enforcement. The impact of the Great Depression on the industrialised future, as well as the role of consumption in understanding societal control. The picture is entertaining, amusing, and usually recognised as one of Chaplin's best works. Authority, according to Chaplin, abuses the working people and places a premium on efficiency over humanity.

Understanding the historical background is crucial. In 1936, the United States was suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, the country's longest and worst economic catastrophe. Many Americans were poor and unemployed throughout the film. In addition, this film was released. during the "red scare," when communism and leftism, as well as anyone sympathetic to workers, were hated by Americans. The film, which acts as a timeless societal critique, sheds light on the problems and views of the period concerning employment and capitalism.

The epidemic of COVID-19 has had a significant economic impact in the United States. As businesses collapsed and millions of individuals lost their jobs, the unemployment rate skyrocketed. During the Great Depression, many struggled to make ends meet while the wealthy and powerful prospered.

The current labour shortage in the United States, however, is a significant distinction. Businesses are struggling to find workers today, just as people were unable to find work during the Great Depression. While COVID-19 may be a contributing factor, the issue is complex.  

Today, labour exploitation is a hot topic of conversation. Workers are fed up with how management treats them and will no longer put up with it.

Communists were resisted in the 1930s, but capitalism was also questioned. Capitalism can and can collapse, as the Great Depression revealed. It can also be a system that dehumanises people.

The opening sequence of the film shows sheep racing through a field, implying that the workers are sheep as well. Chaplin shows how employment and capitalism prioritise practicality above creativity, robbing employees of their personality and agency. Corporations and companies own workers, and numerous photos suggest that work consumes its workers, abusing and exploiting them until they're exhausted or insane.

Any era's attitudes and worries can be revealed through entertainment. While it can help us better comprehend a specific period, it can also serve as a timeless form of self-reflection, allowing us to evaluate our society now and see if things have improved.

Unemployment as we know it now is a relatively recent development, a result of the modern worker economy's requirement that everyone "find a job." At the same time, Chaplin's criticism of "modern" times serves as a reminder of the country's accomplishments since his time. Unemployment still exists, but at far lower rates and with far more complete social safety nets (unemployment benefits, welfare and social services, shelters and food pantries, and so on) than in Chaplin's time.