Modern Times

Charles Chaplin’s Modern Times is not a movie that we can catalog as a comedy or a love story; it’s an epic tale of a misfit whom tries to escape from a monster called modernity.

At first, in the movie we can see the image of a flock of sheep, and then the image of all the worker of the company entering into the factory, as an analogy of how people was (or is?). Our protagonist is a no-named factory worker who is just a gear in a society. Actually none of the character had name, maybe because the director tried to show the stereotype of an epoch where the name wasn’t important, just was important the role played into the society and how much could you produce in it.

I don't want to spoil the movie, but the soul of it is in the image of Charles Chaplin being trapped in the gears of the factory, as all the workers were (or are?) trapped by the rhythm of production and work. Our protagonist prefers to stay in jail for a crime that he didn’t commit than be part of the society as is, because he is afraid to be trapped by the machine, again.

In the introduction of the movie says "Modern Times. A story of industry, of individual enterprise - Humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness". A continuous contradiction. Modern Times is a masterpiece. About an average person who doesn't want to be trapped by the gears of modernity.