I saw this as a child and my laughter at the feeding machine scene was so WILD that I have never laughed so hard at anything again in my entire life. I literally slid out of my chair to the ground gasping for air. The whole film is absurd and brilliant, crisply realized by a comedy genius but for me that one moment transcends even greatness and touches the sublime where is poetry and God. Seeing the 'feeding machine' again as an adult there are tears mixed with laughter. To eat is to live, it is the personal realm and the invasion of the authoritarian state into the personal realm is so arrogant and pompous that it frightens me a lot to see how far it has gone as 'they' regulate our speech, our food, our sex lives according to the latest PC doctrines of 'nice'. Chaplin would not have recognized this new world of ours where the working class he represents here is ruled by progressive billionaires spouting inanities.
Review of Modern Times
