Modern Times (1936) directed by Charlie Chaplin is a “silent” comedy film, starring Charlie Chaplin himself as the Tramp, a character which made Chaplin the most famous man in the 1920s (Stephens). Using conventions of comedy, Chaplin uses this character to critique the mechanization of labor and the conflict between human creativity and industrialization, thereby bringing awareness to issues intensified by the Great Depression and pre-World War II years, such as unemployment, food shortages, Fordism, and repression of political protest…
