Post by klep on Sept 4, 2017 7:51:41 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/4: Modern Times
LABOR WEEK!
There's an idea in America that when you become an adult, you'll find a career. There will be a job that you get, and while you may change companies or move up the ladder a bit, you'll more or less be doing the same thing until you retire.
Needless to say, that is far from reality. For many Americans, and particularly for those lower on the socio-economic scale, there is no such thing as a career; there is merely your current job, and then the next job, and those jobs may have little in common with each other besides needing some cheap, untrained labor. It's a tough kind of life, floating from job to job and living paycheck to paycheck.
Released in the middle of the Great Depression, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times gives us some insight into this kind of living. The last film to star his "Little Tramp" character, Modern Times follows the Tramp as he stumbles from job to job and flits in and out of prison.
It's a comedy of errors. Few of the Tramp's misfortunes are his fault, he just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is inadequately trained prior to being put on the job. He gets overworked into a nervous breakdown, he gets swept up in a labor protest against his will (which, being in the Depression, gets broken up by the cops), and he accidentally destroys a ship under construction (what a wonderful shot). Whenever things go wrong for him, his employers have little sympathy for him or even care to listen to what happened. They just know he screwed up and there's hundreds of people who could take his place.
So one way or another the Little Tramp always finds himself on the street. His lot is poor enough that prison seems like an improvement, and so he makes attempts to get back in - at least until he meets the Gamin (Paulette Goddard), a young woman alone on the streets and wanted for vagrancy. They strike up a rapport - even a relationship - and soon decide to forge a life together. Between the two of them they have the drive and the wits to get ahead, but that doesn't stop misfortune from befalling them anyway.
Because the fact is that being that low on the totem pole means your life will have a lot of misfortune. A lot of frustration, and a lot of setbacks. But the fabled American spirit (which is neither solely American nor all that justified but that's a story for another day) that drives us to better our station means that people like the Little Tramp and the Gamin will keep going, particularly as long as they have the other to rely on.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/11: To Be Or Not To Be (1942)
SCREWBALL WEEK!
It's only fitting that our selection for Screwball Week should be a Lubitsch. Come join us next week for this undoubtedly brilliant comedy about the hunt for a German spy in occupied Poland. That's right, I said comedy. To Be Or Not To Be can be found on YouTube.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/5: Ocean's Eleven
This week's podcast takes a look at how Steven Soderbergh handles a heist film, pairing Logan Lucky up with his 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven. Join us Wednesday as we have a thread for the older film! Ocean's Eleven is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members. Also because of my travel I may have some difficulty getting a watch of this one in, so there may not be much of an essay on Wednesday but I'm going to do what I can!
LABOR WEEK!
There's an idea in America that when you become an adult, you'll find a career. There will be a job that you get, and while you may change companies or move up the ladder a bit, you'll more or less be doing the same thing until you retire.
Needless to say, that is far from reality. For many Americans, and particularly for those lower on the socio-economic scale, there is no such thing as a career; there is merely your current job, and then the next job, and those jobs may have little in common with each other besides needing some cheap, untrained labor. It's a tough kind of life, floating from job to job and living paycheck to paycheck.
Released in the middle of the Great Depression, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times gives us some insight into this kind of living. The last film to star his "Little Tramp" character, Modern Times follows the Tramp as he stumbles from job to job and flits in and out of prison.
It's a comedy of errors. Few of the Tramp's misfortunes are his fault, he just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is inadequately trained prior to being put on the job. He gets overworked into a nervous breakdown, he gets swept up in a labor protest against his will (which, being in the Depression, gets broken up by the cops), and he accidentally destroys a ship under construction (what a wonderful shot). Whenever things go wrong for him, his employers have little sympathy for him or even care to listen to what happened. They just know he screwed up and there's hundreds of people who could take his place.
So one way or another the Little Tramp always finds himself on the street. His lot is poor enough that prison seems like an improvement, and so he makes attempts to get back in - at least until he meets the Gamin (Paulette Goddard), a young woman alone on the streets and wanted for vagrancy. They strike up a rapport - even a relationship - and soon decide to forge a life together. Between the two of them they have the drive and the wits to get ahead, but that doesn't stop misfortune from befalling them anyway.
Because the fact is that being that low on the totem pole means your life will have a lot of misfortune. A lot of frustration, and a lot of setbacks. But the fabled American spirit (which is neither solely American nor all that justified but that's a story for another day) that drives us to better our station means that people like the Little Tramp and the Gamin will keep going, particularly as long as they have the other to rely on.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/11: To Be Or Not To Be (1942)
SCREWBALL WEEK!
It's only fitting that our selection for Screwball Week should be a Lubitsch. Come join us next week for this undoubtedly brilliant comedy about the hunt for a German spy in occupied Poland. That's right, I said comedy. To Be Or Not To Be can be found on YouTube.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/5: Ocean's Eleven
This week's podcast takes a look at how Steven Soderbergh handles a heist film, pairing Logan Lucky up with his 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven. Join us Wednesday as we have a thread for the older film! Ocean's Eleven is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members. Also because of my travel I may have some difficulty getting a watch of this one in, so there may not be much of an essay on Wednesday but I'm going to do what I can!