Thinking activity of 20th century From Modern Times to the era of Great Dictator

Study of Frames in Charles Chaplin's "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator"

Here we shall ponder upon some of the frames of two movies, Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Charlie Chaplin was considered as polymath in the earliest years of film industry. While studying modernist literature, one can certainly go through these two films. Because some works of art are timeless. Because they fit in almost every arena of time and scenario. 

Frames from "Modern Times"

The significance of clock and it's hands. The second hand moves faster, which represents working class of society. Minutes hand can be seen as middle class society. And hour hand moves slower, so it can be said that rich class, aristocrats tend to have moving slowly with arrogance, engaging in leisure activities such as hunting animals and organizing kitty parties. Because of richness, they govern many areas of society and they can create new norms and regulations which restrict the other lower class of people.

Factories and mills were being equipped with new inventions of technology and machines were occupying the human jobs. Due to this unemployment, many people were roaming like sheep without direction. One term is used for one such generation: Lost generation. A word can be used for those people: Sheeple. 

Gigantic machines and littleness of humans. In a way, this frame is depicting the dangerousness and domination of machines and submissiveness of human capacity.

As mentioned above, mill and factory owners, land owners had nothing to do with much of the hardworking jobs. So they indulge in such leisure activities such as solving jigsaw puzzle and reading newspaper. One more thing can be seen here which is education. Educated people use the resources around them and make more money from brain power. The factory owner is playing puzzle game which is a mindful activity just like playing chess. This difference of mental activity done by rich class aristocrats and physical activity and hardwork done by lower class or poor people makes big social gap between the two classes.

We can consider this frame by looking at the sentence, "Big Brother is Watching You." This sentence from the novel 1984 by George Orwell is evident in today's highly pressurized surveillance of today's bureaucracy. This surveillance system can be seen as dictatorial ruling in society. Half naked, muscled man recieving orders from suited and booted official. This scene makes one think that mind power is greater than muscles power. Moreover, one can say that money power is more greater. But from liberal view point one can always question that by risking privacy, how one can work freely ?

This is a representation of leisure activity done by working class people. Because of lack of food, they turn to the toxic addiction such as smoking and they feel relaxed for a while from work. But Big Brother is Watching the layman.

Humans are lubricant oil for machines. This is one of the significant frame in the film. Industrialization and machinations of factories left humans as nut and bolts of machine. For technology, humans are nothing but spare parts. Monotonous job of fitting the bolts on assembly line suggest the mundanity of humans.

Frames from "The Great Dictator"

Big sized weapons, which are still relevant to the modern times. The more weapons a nation has, the more powerful it becomes. The greatness of a country is nowadays measured by it's powerful weapons. 

The power structure flows from upwards to downwards. This is how the orders are passed from high power authority to lowest of the servants. The "obedient" which has nothing to do but accepting the order and servitude. The current political power also works the same way. In government bodies, different circulars are conveyed and the working offices have to abide by the new rules.

In order to gain favors and acceptance, politicians tend to touch the soft corners of public which is children. Such political stunts are still relevant in today's time. Politicians knows the mass psychology and also know how to win people's heart. In order to collect vote majority they follow such practices. The face of Hynkel shows the hypocrisy of politics.

The value of other officials is very low in the eye higher authority. Any agitation or protest may result in permanent detaining or transfer. In current time we can see that honest officials don't stay at one headquarter for long time, because they don't accept bribes and favors but they work honestly. One honest officer is not liked by the group of corrupt officials. One good mango cannot survive longer in the group of other waste mangoes. Either the good mango has to be put on other basket or it has to get wasted among other mangoes.

Dictators are majorly in self-love. They give orders to prepare statues and portraits of themselves so that their identity remains recorded in the history. People come under the influence of the gigantic lifestyle of power people and start making temples of them instead of questioning them.

People in power enjoy the leisure activities and make their schedule as busy as possible so that they can create an impact on the public and make public think that our leader is doing many activities at a time and still has some time to think about us - public.

The barber shop is also considered as the discussion corner of various political events. Barbers also take keen interest in discussing politics with their customers.

Some officials are so close to the power people that they encourage them to make some decisions which are harmful to the society and world. In this frame, Garbage is provoking Hynkel to have more wars and pacts with other nations and encourages Hynkel to become a great dictator of the world.

The dream sequence begins after Garbage's dialogue. Hynkel's hunger for power is highlighted in this frame. He plays with the balloon which is printed as world map. He dreams to be the great dictator of the world.

When one plays too much with fragile things, they get destroyed. The balloon of world map is burst which is a significant symbol that excessive hunger for power leads towards the destruction of the world.

The reading of the word Liberty is ironically highlighted in this frame, the replacement of Hynkel with barber fits aptly into this scene as barber is climbing the stairs instead of Hynkel. In the dictatorial government, only laymen and working class people can best explain the value of liberty.

The double role of Charlie Chaplin makes significant mark in the film. People think that Hynkel is making a speech but it is barber who is giving a remarkable note on liberty and equality. All have equal rights to live peaceful life and earn good wages. No discrimination should take place where all humans are treated equally. Overuse of technology and machines can lead a nations to war and destruction. Humans become a small spare part of machines and become senseless and robotic. This can dehumanize the entire society and then entire world.

Such is the timelessness of Charlie Chaplin's work. It is still relevant to the current time and applicable in many aspects of life.

Words Count  - 1198

Images - 21

Gif - 1