Modern times: the factory of unfulfilled promises

Modern Times is a comedy which illustrates ironically the main aspects of modernity and industrialization.

Charles was a factory worker and he worked in an assembly line when suddenly he became mentally ill because of the hard work and for the long and exhaustive working hours. He produced a tremendous chaos in the factory and for that reason he was sent to the hospital. When he left the hospital, the police confused him and they arrested him for leading a Communist strike. He was sent to jail and there he ate accidentally cocaine. After that he rescued the sheriff and his officials who had been put in jail by a group of rebellious prisoners. His good behavior made think the sheriff and he gave him a recommendation to look for a job outside from the jail he realized that the life the jail was difficult and he wanted to come back to jail.

All at once he stumbled on a woman who was escaping from the police because she had stolen bread, she was very hungry. Both escaped from the police and they began to plan their future together.

In this movie I can see problems like unemployment because the financial crisis in the world, the only way that people had to express their discontent was through strikes and riots. As a result of that situation they were unhappy because modernity did not accomplish its promise, the development of the science and the technology to guarantee the social welfare. And it also shows problems like the automation and mechanization of the human being, the dehumanization of the human life in order to be more productive. Workers did not have time to eat or to go to the toilet; some basic human conditions were ignored to be more effective and efficient in the work.

Another important topic was when Charles was arrested because they thought that he was a communist. In that period of time any kind of thinking against capitalism was suppressed. The main ideal that modernity imposed on society was capitalism

It is a wonderful movie which shows the real problems of modernity, it illustrates what the way of thought was, style and how machines controls the human life but sometimes it is quite cloying because the main character repeats the same stupid behavior many times. Maybe he wanted to represent in a hilarious way how modernity affects the human life. Clearly I will recommend this movie because it demonstrates perfectly Modern Times.