Much like with Hugo, we can take the opening scene of Chaplin's Modern Times and use it as a loose outline of what the movie may be about. We start off with a clock in the background (again, tying us back to Hugo and an insinuation that time plays a role) with a quote across it's face: ""Modern Times." A story of industry, of individual enterprise - humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness." We are then shown a herd of sheep, seemingly fleeing from something unseen, which slowly transitions to a seen of people crowding out of the subway in a hurry. Much like in Hugo, the images are meant to show symbolism, because one is faded onto another, meaning that the first usually equates to the second. Using this mindset, Chaplin's meaning can be interpreted as a few different things. But coupling the images with the quote, one interpretation stands out to me.
During the late 1930's, people were searching in all directions for types of technology to make life easier. Just using the content of the first scene, we can infer that Chaplin is comparing humans to animals. Animals like the ones shown are raised for one reason, and that is to be brought to the slaughter house. By overlaying the image of men rushing off the subway, the comparison is hard to miss. Man is "crusading" in the name of progress, but only for progress's sake and their one reason for working like animals is that they think they are working towards happiness. Instead of actual immaterial happiness, man in plundering towards an easy life where machines do all the work where there is no room for human error. Like the sheep, man thinks it is working towards one thing, while the 'shepherds' know the truth and know the disaster that awaits them at the end of the line.
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