MovieChat Forums > Modern Times (1936) Discussion > What would Chaplin think of the Internet...

What would Chaplin think of the Internet?

posted 20 years ago by jonnyjones72
20 replies | jump to latest

What do you think Chaplin would've thought about the internet?

He was opposed to the new technologies in film such as speech in the new 'talkies' because it would make a distintion between foreign and domestic films. He wanted his films to be accessible to everyone. The 'talkies' happened anyway. Chaplin made some too. The Great Dictator was his best 'talkie.'
We now live in the internet and DVD age. And Chaplin's films are accessible to everyone. Again. Whether talkie or not. Yet, it took technology to create the internet and home video/DVD. Modern Times seems to speak about how machines and technologies were screwing us over. We shouldn't rely on them to make us more human. If it wasn't socialist or communist, as Chaplin said so to avoid trouble, then it was certainly anti-technology.
I don't know. I'm certainly relying on technology to explore humanity by watching Chaplin on video and discussing him on the internet.
Maybe technology doesn't create the problems. The lack of Charlie Chaplins in the world create the problems.
What do you think?

J

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] shannydoh 20 years ago

i think chaplin was, like many a genius to come and go, born much to soon for his time. some could say we now live in a time when technology HAS made our lives easier - there's no better proof of that than when you experience a power outtage. all chaplin thought was we shouldn't be slaves to the machines - in the beginning it was the other way around. i think he would be amazed at the internet. in fact, there was an idea he had for a comedy short back before he gave up shorts for feature films, of the tramp taking a trip to the moon. he would wear some kind of 'space' hat that would display his thoughts and get him into trouble with a martian when the tramp saw the martian's sexy wife. i also think he would have love knowing - because of this technology that is easily taken for granted today - that his work is reaching more people than ever before. i think he had a fear of being forgotten, and the internet has certainly done its share of preserving his memory. at the same time, would he fit in a world of today? he preferred not to come back to america after his exile because things had changed so much. we were lucky to have him here at all. and the child porn remark was uncalled for - sorry, i couldn't resist.

[–] Neon_Saint 20 years ago

In this film I think Chaplin addresses the problem that we end up working for the machines, instead of them working for us.

I think Chaplin would have loved DVDs and the Internet (although he would probably have hated cell phones – don’t ask me to explain it – just a gut feeling). I don’t think Modern Times is anti-technology, not more than The Matrix anyway, both films tells a story about the dehumanizing (modern) society that the main characters are trying to escape.

The problem isn’t technology as such, the problem is when technology, living standards and mass productions becomes more important than human beings. When we serve technology instead of technology serving us.

[–] mcbeaulieu 20 years ago

I think he wouldn't like the fact that a lot of his films are easily available for free on the Internet...

Marie

[–] danernest 20 years ago

I just saw the movie, Modern Times, and although the movie was about technology, I thought that Mr. Chaplin's film focused more on the difference of the 'haves' and 'have nots'. The president of the company was made to look lazy and foolish, overworking his staff, while sending time playing jigsaw puzzles. When he has the job at the store, his old co-workers break in, not to steal money, but to find something to eat.

It has been previously mentioned that Chaplin wanted his movies accessable to everyone, and the internet has brought us there. Up until a few years ago, my knowledge of the great Mr. Chaplin was very limited: I didn't even know that he made features.

Like Mr. Charlie Chaplin, I am lefthanded. So we have something of a small connection. Mr. Robert Downey Jr., who played Mr. Chaplin in the movie Chaplin, is also lefthanded.

LEFTY POWER!

Dan Ernest

[–] needles_and_sutures 20 years ago

Yeah, man! Lefties rule!...even though I'm...um...right-handed...Modern Times rocks my socks. Chaplin is and always will be the shiznit.

~ Spock and Kirk, Harry and Draco, Buster and Charlie. Spell this with me now. F-L-A-M-E-R-S ~

[–] beanochris 19 years ago

He would of said 'Just because the government tells us we like it doesn't mean I have to like it. I'm a non-conformist'.

Guess what he REALLY was talking about there.

[–] Tommy 42 19 years ago

I think Chaplin very much a Victorian Man, as has been mentioned above.

However, my reason for posting is because someone worryingly commented above that the "machines WERE" ruining our lives. In my opinion (and this is why I love this film so much) they still ARE ruining our lives.
In 1936 machines were starting to take over.

In 2005 they HAVE taken over.

Instead of boring you with details, here are two examples of what I mean;

A secretary at my place of work actually had to sit and do NOTHING for 45 minutes because the electricity in her office went off. It took out everything; her computer (email and word processor), her fax machine, her photocopier and her phone!
She couldn't do anything!

Secondly, I've been re-reading War of the Worlds recently and there is this wonderful moment in it when Wells describes the Victorian street he is walking down. He mentions how the gas works is pumping fumes into the sky and how suddenly, at the fall of dusk, the electric lights suddenly flickered on.

The latter is from such a simple time when no one had power and the only electricity was for street lights! This is the time that Chaplin grew up in and so you can see where Modern Times came from when you take these two points into consideration.

These days we cannot do anything without electricity.
Modern Times is a masterpiece and is just as relevent today.

We all know that our bosses would have us working during lunch if they could, some of us even do!
I don't think Chaplin was anti-technology as much as you say, otherwise he would never have made films in the first place! Modern Times, if I remember correctly had all the latest equipment for lighting and lens's.

He was not shy of using new technology, but he was nervous when "told" he had to use it. Chaplin never liked being told to do anything.
He just wanted to tread carefully, something that internet people didn't consider when it became a breeding ground for sleeze, porn and viruses.

Chaplin just NEVER jumped on the band wagon, he certainly didn't follow the crowd of sheep. Sometimes sitting back and waiting until something is ready is the best idea, and he knew it.

Take DVD Recorders for example!!!

Brilliant film, brilliant man. If only he could have been President or PM, the last horrific 66 years may never have happened!!

TS
p.s please don't take anything i've said TOO seriously!

[–] classicmoviecomedy 17 years ago

I think the idea Chaplin was exploring in this film is that technology holds great power and it must be used responsibly or else it will consume humanity. I don't think Chaplin was a Luddite, as some have suggested, but rather that he approached the application of technology with great trepedation. It actually becomes a pretty prominent theme in his later work, including the use of military technology in THE GREAT DICTATOR, in which he also explores the affect of technology on human pscyhology, and explores the use of weapons of mass destruction in MONSIEUR VERDOUX, comparing one man's serial killing to the mass murders committed in times of war, and shrewdly using Depression-era France as a metaphor for Postwar America. LIMELIGHT is a return to the internalized human relationships-Chaplin is, in a sense, returing viewers to a comparatively pre-technological world of WWI-era London as a way to explore human relationships and the psychology of love. A KING IN NEW YORK is one of his most overt satires, very clearly showing the absurdity of technology for pop-culture purposes (the widescreen movie, for instance). A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG does not really address the theme of technology directly, focusing (like LIMELIGHT) on human relationships, and in any case is a much more direct story as opposed to his previous films.

Matt

____
View my films at: www.youtube.com/comedyfilm

[–] enbilal 19 years ago

Matrix movies deal with the same subject and nobody is calling them communist.
Chaplin was ahead of his time.

[–] Lily_magic 19 years ago

Lovely

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jonnyjones72 19 years ago

genius still exists today, just in different forms. there are no more Einstein's for the sciences because it would clash with the corporate agenda.
when a genius in the film industry emerges, like Darren Arronofsky, they get signed to make a Super/Spider/Batman movie instead continuing their craft. (in Arronofsky's case, Batman Begins fell thru and Chris Nolan took over to makde something half decent.)
genius still exists, but they kind of have to hide it. like a lot of the comedians, and their writers, who I consider to be geniuses. George Carlin, John Stewart, Rowan Atkinson, Chris Barrie, Richard Curtis, Rob Grant, Doug Naylor. they disguise themselves as entertainers whether writing or performing it, and sometimes hide themselves in crappy movies. then take their real show on the road.
but someday they'll be seen the same as Einstein, Kubrick, Chaplin, and maybe even Jesus. or maybe they won't, but that's kind of the point.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] artihcus022 17 years ago

I certainly never thought of Chaplin as anti-technology as such. A film-maker just can't be a technophobe, clashes with vocation.

What Chaplin was against was when people act like machines...when they're no different from the tools, cogs, sprocks that they use. And machines itself do not do this. It's humans who allow or are forced by circumstances to do this. The workers didn't have a choice working in the factory. Think of the numerous families who depend on them.

The opening scene is a breathtaking piece of film-making completely eliminating all senseless criticism that Chaplin wasn't an inventive director. You have the shot of the sheep being herded, then the throng of the workers and the factory sequence. From animals to man to machine. Just amazing.

As for the Internet..., well it's completely different from what Chaplin was criticizing...

How much is a good nights sleep worth?

[–] SnorrSm1989 16 years ago

As for the Internet..., well it's completely different from what Chaplin was criticizing...

Is it, really? I think Chaplin's inner intention was to make a general statement about the madness technology has created in our lives (or, rather, the madness we have created with the technology we have created) -- he just happened to use the industrialism as an example in this film because that happened to be the most recent "improvement" of technology at that time. Had the movie been made today, it seems very probable to me that he would have taken the opportunity to say a few things about the Internet and computers in general as well.

Well, as I am sitting here and writing this post on a computer myself, you may want to call me a hypocrite. But I am not. I admit that the Internet has helped me to improve myself in several ways; thanks to all the writing on these message boards, for instance, my language is much better now than it was just a couple of years ago. I've also got contact with many interesting people who share my interest in silent film. The problem with the Internet and technology in general, I think, is that we don't know where to stop; once upon a time, each new invention was supposed to have a purpose which should make life more calm and effective for people. Now, inventions are created simply to make things go faster; we don't even stop for a moment to discuss whether the new invention actually helps us in any way. Remember, the fact that things go faster does not mean that things get easier; and this is exactly what I think Chaplin so brilliantly demonstrates in this wonderful comedy.

--
Snorre M

"Virtue needs some cheaper thrills." - Hobbe