Modern Times (1936)

The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Charles Chaplin
Written By: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin, Stanley Blystone, Chester Conklin, Richard Alexander, Hank Mann, Paulette Goddard, Tiny Sandford, Murdock MacQuarrie, Henry Bergman, Al Ernest Garcia, Mira McKinney, Cecil Reynolds
Country: USA
Where to Stream
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Modern Times belongs to 124 collections
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Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
28 | ![]() |
BillyShears | 80 77th |
Another 90 minutes of watching Chaplin try to slapstick his way into banging a homeless girl.
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Luna6ix | 90 97th |
a silent film using everything that had improved in film making to 1936 except sound (it's actually a strange blend of silent and non-silent), and it works quite nicely. every player in this movie is top notch and it's quality is--in every way--superb.
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Paxton | 75 78th |
In the inevitable remake he'll have a sword fight with an Amazon warehouse robot.
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Pickpocket | 7 68th |
Pretty good. A few genuine laughs (boat scene was hilarious). Loved the ending. It is the last American film to use title cards as dialogue from the silent era so it's only fitting that Charlie gets the final words. The song near the end was pretty bad though.
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PeaceAnarchy | 83 72nd |
Funny, but its strong point is the wonderful love story and social commentary.
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frederic_g54 | 9 90th |
(after repeat viewings) The social commentary, comedy and drama all work perfectly on their own yet not as a whole because of how abrupt the tonal shift feels. It's still great, timeless and exceedingly funny (the scene where he picks up the wedge which leads to the sinking boat is comedy gold). Love the ending.
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Barthalen | 73 64th |
It's interesting for the social commentary, but I wasn't really entertained apart from the wonderful factory scenes. Too many scenes just went by where nothing really interesting happens, either visually or story-wise. Maybe I was just hoping for more of Chaplin's wonderful physical shenanigans. The ending was perfectly bittersweet.
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Jimmy Suede | 75 58th |
Okay, I now accept that Chaplin's comedy just isn't for me. This is one of his best movies, and I did find some parts mildly humorous, but for me it wasn't great. Seeing our hero repeatedly take it in the shorts because of bad luck and his own bungling stupidity makes me too tense to have my sense of humor tickled. But where the humor failed for me, the pathos (coupled with a decent social commentary) was successful and for that I enjoyed Modern Times.
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MartinTeller | 84 81st |
Obviously a marvelously crafted piece of comedy, full of brilliant ideas, incisive satire and just plain fun. And yet, the little tramp just doesn't ring my bell. Maybe the character just doesn't appeal to me. I can't put my finger on it, but I simply didn't feel entertained by what I could recognize as an entertaining film. I smiled a few times, but other than that, nothing. But I still can recognize that this is a great movie, just not my kinda thing.
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Farzan | 95 96th |
One of Chaplin's greatest, sure it doesn't have the huge romantic value as City Lights, but whatever this film lacks in romance, is made up with hilarious slapstick comedy. But there still is romance! This film made me laugh like no other film, and over 70 years late nontheless! The Tramp character is so charming, I really adore him a lot here. This film never gets old. Classic Chaplin.
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Magb | 85 73rd |
Modern Times is an excellent film with excellent humor and excellent timing. The social commentary comes off as a bit obvious today, but I'm sure it felt very relevant at the time. In any case, large parts of the film are still hilarious 70 years after they were made, and I'm sure they'll be just as hilarious 70 years from now. Timeless.
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Derekstar | 70 50th |
Not as good as I expected it to be. Many of the scenes just seemed like funny isolated incidents. There's less of a cohesive story here than in Chaplin's other films. I liked it, but it was less funny than something like The Gold Rush, and less romantic than something like City Lights. Although I must say that the ending is abundantly sentimental, which I love. Speaking of The Gold Rush, they definitely re-used that set in this film. Or maybe it was a direct homage. Either way, I didn't mind.
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Alex Watkins | 5 91st |
The sound design is not just unique, it's brilliant in the manner which it lends a voice to the mechanical and simultaneously robs its characters of agency. The social commentary, romance and slapstick humor all intertwine beautifully (if occasionally recklessly), with the Tramp's self-sufficiency flying in the face of an increasingly mechanized age. On a lighter note, Paulette Goddard is a straight-up hottie in this movie; baby, you can get truant with me any day.
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Stain | 0 8th |
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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Freder | 100 98th |
Chaplin's best; a wildly romantic anti-utopian story that pits the little tramp against Big Brother, with neither side emerging as the clear-cut victor. So much has been written about this that Freder does not need to add anything other than "it's all true." No one who calls themselves a movie fan can afford to ignore this one.
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Wiche | 83 85th |
Better than the great dictator for me. Old and still very actual. A very good story with hilarious pieces and a good and romantic love story. Charlie did it again with this superb movie of his.
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Jeb | 99 95th |
It's hard not to rank this 100, but one tiny flaw sets this back. Just......god, this is just powerful, powerful filmmaking at it's finest hour.
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XakkMaster | 90 88th |
Charming and lots of fun. Also, the social commentary on the working class has not become obsolete despite the film's age. Chaplin has obvious talent for physical comedy and fully captures the attention of the viewer.
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letskillrobots | 21 59th |
Too modern for me.
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Bown | 88 88th |
While it may not have the depth of emotion seen in City Lights, the humour, visuals, and political themes are still light years ahead of almost anything made since.
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mwgerb | 71 87th |
Filled with brilliant slapstick comedy throughout: the factory scene, the drugs, the boat, ad infinitum. I did think there were some weaker moments, but Chaplin is so resolutely good-natured that I can't help but love him. Plus, no one nails a bittersweet ending like he does.
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Noblet | 77 62nd |
I thought it was brilliant up until The Tramp leaves the jail for the first time, but nothing else after that really worked for me.
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glumpy_99 | 100 99th |
A beautiful, poignantly satirical masterpiece; opens with its highlight, a breathlessly hilarious take on technology run amok (clearly an inspiration for one of Lucy's most famous sketches); while nothing ever quite tops this sequence for sheer brilliance, the rest is still a remarkable achievement, as Chaplin takes aim at capitalism and consumerism, while constructing elaborate (and while rollerskating terrifying) comedic set pieces. And what a finale - Chaplin talks!!!
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1 | ![]() |
DetoxP | 1 0th |
The satire is great, and the comedy is great for most of it (and even when it's not, the Tramp is just so charming that he carries it anyways), and the movie's just so bloody fun. When you watch Modern Times, you can't help but feel a pervasive sense that Chaplin was a genius, and made what he did into an artform. Score is not a grade.
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teckgecko | 67 37th |
(viewed October 2012)
Frequently very funny, but the gags often go on a bit too long--the comedy is a bit like watching live-action Looney Toons (I don't mean this to be derogatory). It feels too much like a series of loosely connected (and often predictable) vignettes rather than a seamless whole. From a modern perspective, the sound design seems somewhat odd, though I understand how it could be seen as innovate for its time. Goddard is quite captivating, but the romance did little for me.
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Gnalkhere | 95 97th |
Fuck all y'all this is his best
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lex | 95 91st |
Some of Chalpin's funniest moments perfectly blended with revolutionary (at the time) social commentary make this one of his best films. I still kind of wish that awkward song performance towards the end never happened but that's not really a serious offense.
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karamazov. | 26 30th |
As much as some of the physical comedy is impressive and fun, MT's hopeless lack of any coherent thesis made this rather ineffectual, for me.
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JSchlansky | 80 77th |
Apparently I live around the corner from one of Chaplin's (many) old houses. It is currently occupied by about a dozen homeless men... social commentary?
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amazedemon | 66 70th |
Modern Times is the culmination of Chaplin's work in silent films. In a way the comedy almost transcends mere slapstick, with polished editing (for the time) that selectively speeds up sequences in scenes, making the action effectively a dance number. The jokes are often funny & occasionally clever but I'm surprised the social commentary stoked communism fears at the time. Workers rights, industrial obsolescence & an easier life ≠ communism. Chaplin's a legend & Goddard's pretty...great too.
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1 | rojatume | 82 72nd |
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Funny throughout, though the coexistence of sound and silence is unsettling.
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Average Percentile 78.71% from 4193 Ratings | ![]() |