Mar. 05, 2004 - 8:29 am
this wasn't my first time seeing it, but this is one of the more excellent Chaplin films and you can never see those too much. the movie's on the AFI Top 100 Films list and it's also number 73 today on the IMDb's top 250 voted movies. needless to say, if you bother to watch this movie, you're going to like it.
this movie takes place in the industrial post-depression 1930s and focuses a lot on the difficulties of that time. the Tramp gets thrown into jail more times in this film than probably any other, and he usually doesn't even mind it that much. sometimes he even wants to be there. hey, at least it's a free meal and bed right? Chaplin also uses this film to make fun of mechanization, robotics, assembly lines, and all other sorts of dehumanization. Chaplin was always obsessed with the humanity of the world, and the loss of that is what drove him to create some of his later films such as this one.
definitely my favorite scene in this one is the gag with the "automatic feeding machine." it's something that's designed so that assembly line workers can continue to work with their hands, while the machine feeds them on their lunch break. of course they decide to test it on the Tramp, and of course it goes haywire and starts smacking him around. it has an automatic mouth wiper arm that repeatedly starts smacking him in the mouth and each time he opens his mouth and screams after it smacks him. hilarious stuff. it's a very endearing film and i don't think i'll get tired of it any time soon.