Module 06: "Which Side Are You On?" The Flint Sit-Down Strike, 1936-37

Evidence 19: Charlie Chaplin on the Speed-up, 1936

(click to print)

 

Introduction

The clip below features one of the most famous scenes from Modern Times. In it, the heartless factory manager orders the assembly line to sped up to the "limit." Chaplin's character struggles to keep up until he suffers an apparent nervous breakdown and is literally eaten by the machine that pushes him to labor at an unsustainable rate.

Questions to Consider

  • How would sit-downers have responded to this scene?

  • Would they have identified with the Chaplin character?

Source:
Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times (1936).

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