The silent movie, "Modern Times," opens up with Chaplin so focused on tightening bolts before the assembled products travel through a conveyor belt to their next destination. He makes a social commentary on technology and industry by his body movements. In the factory scenes, you’ll see that he works like a machine himself. Chaplin is continuously performing the body motions that he uses to tighten screws even when he isn’t working. Due to the fast moving assembly line, the poor man is unable to take a break. His working conditions are so harsh that his arms practically have minds of their own. He feels that he must tighten every round object he sees, even if it’s on a woman’s item of clothing. A prime example of this was seen in his encounter with the secretary’s skirt. Something I find quite ironic is that when Chaplin tries to take a secret break in the bathroom, the boss still manages to find him with secretive surveillance cameras. This demonstrates that during that time period, work was taken very seriously and wasn’t just a place to let time pass by.

As far as landscape, the gears and ramps within the factory add to the anticipation that the audience feels. It’s almost as if you can experience the rush of the conveyor belt and the fast moving metal plates even though there is no sound. There was a tremendous amount of suspense whenever Chaplin would lose focus in his work. I was always worried that he would end up sending off bad products or actually in the machine. When he actually went through the gears and belts, it seemed so painless, like a graceful ride through the factory. It was evident that a lot of the scenes in the movie were just paintings, especially the final scene in which Chaplin walks off into the wide open land.

Chaplin’s face demonstrates how working in a factory is not relaxing: he always seems worried and rushed. When his eyes get bigger, it’s obvious that something has definitely gone wrong. One thing that really described factory work was the bug that flew into Chaplin’s face. I was expecting someone to do something about it, but Chaplin was left to struggle until one of the employees had to slap his face to kill the insect. The worst thing was the fact that nobody bothered to help him after his work was delayed. You could tell that Chaplin was putting all he could into his job by the tightening of the muscles in his face. He also turned his head a little bit to the right which showed how hard he was working. The goal of this movie is to show that factory work isn’t easy, and during that time period, one didn’t have the option of a multitude of careers.