Modern Times (1936, USA)

Aichi Insurance Physicians’ Newspaper

Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece Modern Times tells the story of the harshness and tragedy of life under the Great Depression.

Charlie, a factory worker, gradually loses his mind from the monotony of his daily tasks, eventually acting out violently and being hospitalized. Though he recovers, he is fired from the factory and warned by the doctor to avoid excitement. While wandering the streets aimlessly, he gets caught up in a riot. Carrying a red flag and unwittingly placed at the head of the crowd, he is mistaken for the ringleader and imprisoned. However, his innocence is later proven and he is released.

Charlie then finds work at a shipyard, but is quickly fired due to his inexperience. He even begins to wonder if returning to prison might be a better option. When he sees a hungry orphan girl arrested by police for stealing food, he deliberately eats without paying at a café so he can be taken to jail as well. On the way to prison, he meets the girl, and the two conspire to escape together. From that moment on, they become inseparable.

Charlie gets a job as a night watchman at a department store, and for a moment rejoices at having found a job he enjoys. But on the very first night, the store is ransacked by thieves and he is arrested again under suspicion. Upon his release, he finds that the girl is now working as a cabaret dancer. With her recommendation, Charlie begins working there as a singing waiter.

But one day, a customer shows up—he turns out to be the young official who had once tried to send the girl to a reform school. Charlie flees with her, and the final scene shows the two of them setting off cheerfully on a journey as wanderers, marking the end of the film. Their descent from the modern industrial workplace into a life where only prison offers food and shelter reflects the tragic consequences of the Great Depression.

Today, as prisons are being expanded and public hospitals consolidated, we must not fall into the foolish belief that healthcare is "recession-proof."