Modern Times

Historical Context

Charlie Chaplin’s movie Modern Times was set during the time of the great depression and in the context of the emerging industrialized world. With this film Charlie Chaplin effectively illustrated the conditions and difficulties that many Americans must have been subject to during those years. The film uses the Little Tramp character as a archetype of the American citizen, and shows, through comedic scenes, some of the social injustices that were occurring during the time of the great depression.

The time in which the film was set was a time of great political, economical and societal turmoil. There were many people driven from their homes as a result of the sudden downturn in the economy, who were forced to live in communities, called “Hoovervilles,” which were comprised of makeshift shacks, and that were named as a result of apparent disdain for the Herbert Hoover the President of the United States at the time. The unemployment rate reached the historical high of 25%. As a result of the difficulties the suicide rate increased on a national level. This was the bleak historical  setting of the Chaplin’s movie Modern Times. 

Critical Analysis 

With the historical context of Modern Times in mind it is easy to see that Chaplin was making a movie that was criticizing the political and economic systems. Through characters and humor Chaplin very effectively shows how difficult earning a living during the time of the great depression must have been. Chaplin also effectively portrays a distinct division between the rich and the average american citizen. 

The hero of the movie is the Little Tramp, who is meant to represent the American people. The Little Tramp is illustrated as an overworked and innocent victim of a system that doesn’t care about him. The character is likable because of the slapstick humor that he portrays, and the comedically difficult situations that he finds himself in, which makes his message more acceptable to the audience. 

     The opening scenes of the movie shows the Little Tramp working on an assembly line tightening bolts that pass him on the conveyor belt. While he is busy working away, the owner of the company is sitting comfortably in his office, periodically communicating with the foreman to increase productivity by speeding up the conveyor belt that the Little Tramp is working on. Eventually the belt goes so fast that the workers can’t keep up anymore. This scene illustrates a division between the rich and the average American citizen. The Little Tramp is worked so hard that he eventually has a mental break, and can’t stop moving his arms in the tightening motions. This illustrates the lack of care by the people with wealth and power for those that beneath them economically. The aforementioned scene illustrates that the film was a kind of Marxist propaganda. Though the Marxist ideas were generally rejected by the American people, it was easy to accept the ideas as portrayed in the film, because so many could relate to the character of the Little Tramp. 

Personal Reflection

Modern Times is a very important movie to me. I believe that the arts are the most effective way to communicate history. With this movie I believe that I gained an insight to the great depression, and the conditions of the American people during that time, that I have never had before. Chaplin taught me more with the Little Tramp than years of education, and many text books did. Even more important than the historical lessons of the movie, was the way the movie taught me that profound and poignant points can be made with humor and creativity, and that those points will be accepted and appreciate much more because of the medium in which they are delivered. I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to view a movie that I wouldn’t have ever watched if I hadn’t been in this class. The movie made and impression that will never fade. 

A Tribute to Andy Warhol

     Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to emigrant parents. He spent much of his childhood sick in bed where he listened to the radio and collected pictures of celebrities. This time shaped Andy Warhol; the things that he listened to and the photos that he collected inspired the work that he would become famous for years later as an artist. 

Warhol grew into a painter in the Pop Art movement. This particular style of art was one that took seemingly mundane things from society and presented it in a plain way to the audience. Warhol painted Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s Soup cans in an unembellished manner. The style was in direct contrast to the preceding Modernist movement, which attempted to communicate complex beliefs and ideas through abstract images. Warhol wouldn’t ever give a deeper explanation of his paintings other than, “Just look at the surface of my paintings... There’s nothing behind it.”

I believe that there is a deeper meaning behind Warhol’s paintings. I believe that he was trying to portray an idea that art doesn’t have to be complex and deep, with the universe’s answers found therein. I believe that he was making the point, in a very simple and strong way, that art can be whatever the artist wants it to be. A lot of people today look at Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans or Coca-Cola Bottles and think that it is just kitschy, meaningless art. The context of the art must be considered though. Warhol’s art has meaning because of the time in which it was produced. The playful and ironic nature of his art exemplified the postmodern art movement, which emerged after and rejected the modernism movement.  

       When I first saw Warhol’s art I was not very impressed with it. To me it seemed simple and unoriginal. My opinion started to change though the more I learned about Andy Warhol and the context in which he made his art. I know consider his art to be very ironic and brave. I love that he chose to reject the conventional ideas of art and move forward in his own playful way. I don’t believe that this type of art would work today because it would just be seen as pastiche, however in it’s time it was very influential and groundbreaking. 

I chose both the Coca-Cola Bottles and the Campbell’s Soup Cans to pay tribute to  in my creative project. I believed that these paintings were important for America’s art. I wanted to pay homage to a man that I didn’t understand or appreciate at first glance. Through this project I have come to learn that when I see something, and write it off after just a glance, there is probably more to it that I am not seeing in that initial glance. Andy Warhol’s art helped to change my rigid ideas about what art has to be into a more fluid way of thinking that will allow me to view new art with new eyes and an open mind. 

     My Monochrome Sprite Cans photograph is meant to pay homage to Warhol in a way that is both playful and ironic. I drew from his paintings of Coke bottles and soup cans and stacked the Sprite. Then I added the monochrome color to pay tribute to his unique images of Marilyn Monroe. The photo is my way of showing appreciation to a man who changed art in America.

3 of the Most Influential Songs of the 20th Century

The Doors: Light My Fire

As a very young child I listened to The Doors music a lot. Despite being familiar with the music, I had no knowledge about the background of, or inspiration for The Doors’ songs. Of all their recordings my favorite was Light My Fire. I can still vividly remember sitting in my bedroom listening to this song, being both fascinated and frightened by it. I was fascinated my the uniqueness of the song, but frightened because of the haunting nature of the organ. As a 7 year old boy I never thought that 20 years later I would finally learn the history of my first favorite song. 

Listening to the NPR clip gave me insights into Light My Fire that shocked me. Going into this assignment I was as ignorant as the fascinated and frightened boy that I was 20 years prior, so when I learned that Favorite Things, as performed by Coltrane, was the inspiration behind Light My Fire I nearly fell of my chair. Previous to this, I had always assumed that the driving force behind the song was psychedelic drugs not freeform jazz played on a saxophone. Though this revelation shocked me, it also added a deeper respect and understanding for the song. 

Learning that Light My Fire was inspired by, and a tribute to a jazz saxophone song helped me view the song with new eyes. I have listened to the song many songs since learning of it’s background. The new appreciation stemming from the fact that the song is jazz inspired, is most obviously illustrated through the epic keyboard and guitar solos positioned in the middle of the piece. In my opinion the solos weren’t just randomly placed to demonstrate the prowess of the artists, but rather deliberately freeform jazz in nature so that an appropriate homage could be paid to the artist and song that inspired Light My Fire.

Elvis Presley: Hound Dog & Don’t Be Cruel

The reason for selecting the Elvis Presley songs for this assignment, is that I have never liked Elvis music. I chose the songs to try and gain an appreciation for the man revered as “The King of Rock ‘n Roll.” However, when I first listened to the NPR clip my lack of appreciation was reinforced, however as I listened to it again and again, it was the king himself that changed my mind. 

My distaste for Elvis deepened when I learned that his biggest hits, Hound Dog and Don’t Be Cruel, were all written by people other than him. The artists that I have always appreciated the most have written and performed their own songs. I believed that it was shallow and insincere, that somebody would perform a song that wasn’t their own. As I learned this fact I felt vindicated for being one of the few people on the planet that didn’t at least appreciate what Elvis Presley did for music. My opinion changed though when I started to contemplate his place in musical history on a deeper level.

A very interesting fact that was brought out in the NPR recording was that Elvis was criticized for not giving credit to the styles from which he was drawing from, in particular the African American style of blues. I found this intriguing because white performers have taken black American art and marketed it as their own, multiple times in history, and so I thought that perhaps my initial disliking of Elvis now had grounds. However Elvis himself set me straight when he stated, “When I sing, I just sing from my heart. some people say it’s because I am offering folks a new kind of rhythm. I really don’t know about that though, my own kind of rhythm is really about as old as music itself.” I believe that this shows that Elvis was humble, and was aware of his place in music history. He was to be a voice of the music, a performer of songs, indeed a conduit through which the art of others could pass to the masses.

 

Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit

In the early 1990s Nirvana emerged and seemingly vanquished the pop/rock of the 1980s. My taste in music exactly mirrored the American musical landscape of the late 80s and early 90s. My opinions were greatly molded by my older cousins who where 8-10 years older than me. They instilled in me a love of hair bands like Poison, Cinderella, Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard. I didn’t listen to the radio much, just tapes and C.D., so I was behind the times. Finally in 1998 or so I was introduced to Nirvana. The opening riff of Smells Like Teen Spirit had the same effect on me as it did on musical America. The bands from the 80s that I had loved, and whose songs I had memorized, suddenly seemed silly and contrived. Nirvana intensity, sincerity, and originality changed my taste in music forever. 

Smells Like Teen Spirit came into my life when I was about 16 years old and it reflected the inner desire that I felt to rebel against the establishment. As the NPR recording points out, the progression of the song is a series of crescendos into eventual eruptions accompanied by lyrics that my parents couldn’t understand. It became my personal years high school anthem. What I didn’t realize when Smells Like Teen Spirit was blasting through my car speakers on the way to school was that, as NPR points out, the song was criticizing me and my generation. In an ironic way the band illustrated and sharply criticized, through it’s music, the “over-bored” and “self-assured” attitude that I possessed. When I first learned this while listening to the NPR clip I felt a little betrayed, however when the brilliance of the song began to set it, I appreciated it even more. I mean the band wrote a song that I thought defined me, but as it turns out it was insulting me. Genius.