Charlie Chaplin Modern Times
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Modern Times is a movie created almost entirely by Chaplin, he wrote, directed, financed and starred in it, and it is largely a social protest film. It is uniquely a silent film, even though synchronized sound film had been in production for almost nine years, an effective tool in protesting against the rise of the machine and production line economising of time and the worker.
The most relevant sequence in the film related to this protest is where Chaplin is 'fed' to the machine, it runs from 00:13:30 to 00:14:30. To start the sequence we see Chaplin and his two assembly line co-workers framed in the shot with the conveyor belt passing through the shot from left to right at a 40 angle. The music is fast paced, mimicking the motions and speed of the workers. The camera pans to keep Chaplin in the shot as he struggles with the effects of repetitive motion. Chaplin becomes so obsessed with the tightening of the bolts that he initially tries to follow them into the bowels of the mechanism but is held back by his co-workers. "He's Crazy" the screen reads. At this point there is a close up of Chaplin with a crazed smile on his face as he continues to tighten the bolts, the camera cuts to a frame of his co-worker who is calling for the mechanism to be shut off. Here the worker lets go of Chaplin, accidentally, and he is sucked into the machine...