Friday, January 11, 2008

First post!

Hello! I'm Courtney Rebich. I'm a sophomore and I am from around the Pittsburgh area. I enjoy music, volleyball, gymnastics, etc. My major is Communication Science Disorders. I am looking to be an SLP (Speech Language Pathologist).
When Adam first mentioned that "Modern Times" was a silent film I wasn't too excited to watch it, but I really did enjoy it. I agree with Joe and Kevin. When Charlie Chaplain sang, I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting it to be in English, but obviously it wasn't. I would have had no clue what he was singing about had it not been for his actions and body movements (even though I was still a little confused about what he was singing about). I had never really seen a silent film all the way through so I never noticed how much facial expressions and actions contributed to the emotion and understanding of a film until now. Even without speaking, Chaplain got every point across that he was trying to convey.
Music also played a big role in this film. Even in films today music is very crucial. It is even more important in silent films. It adds a lot of emotion. A movie would be very boring without it. In a silent film music is another way to convey what people are trying to say and what emotions they are trying to express.
Another point I would like to address is about the labor strife. It struck me as kind of odd, yet funny that Chaplain wanted to stay in jail. He was treated so much better while he was in jail. He was always fed and had somewhere to sleep, especially after he helped stop the breakout. He was always trying to find ways to get himself put back in. Since Chaplain seemed to always find a way to mess things up, such as the ship yard and the factory, things were especially hard. It is striking to see that things were that much worse in the 30's to the point that some people would rather be in jail than out in the real world. People these days wouldn't know what to do with themselves without all of the technologies we have today.

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