Movie-A-Day #248: Modern Times (1936).

Happy Labor Day, fellow Americans. Although the holiday now is just an excuse to fire up the grill and celebrate the unofficial end of summer, it used to mean a whole lot more. It began as a day to honor the workers of America, but the modern labor movement is in a shambles now. The rights of workers are under attack by corporations and extreme right wing politicians, while the middle class is shrinking and jobs are drying up. The situation is so bad that it’s quickly degenerating into the same conditions of a century ago that the original labor movement fought so hard to remedy. And nowhere is the importance of that movement captured on film so well as in Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times.” Sadly, it’s still relevant today.