Written and directed by Chaplin, It is story of a Jewish barber who had to suffer persecution under the dictatorship of Hynkel. He himself played both the leading roles of the fascist dictator and the Jewish barber, who once served the army in the past.
Chaplin’s satire always has the power to pull you towards its subject and here it is no different. He explicitly criticized Hitler, Mussolini, Fascism, antisemitism and the Nazis in this hard hitting satire. Remember, even America was not at war with Hitler when this movie was released.
Charlie Chaplin decided to give voice to his character for the first time in a movie for his magnum opus. He comes out of his tramp image in this, and in the final passage he produces one of the best onscreen speeches ever and quite remarkably the content of the speech is still relevent in the modern day. What a way to do your first sound film!!
When you watch it now, you will admire the sheer audacity of making such a film at a time when Hitler was at his prime. But in his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin admitted that he wouldn’t have dared to do the movie had he known the cruelties of Hitler and his Nazi army!!
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One reply on “The Great Dictator(1940) : A timeless classic!!”
Audacity is the right word. This is a good and important film, I think. That scene where Chaplin-as-Hitler bounces the world balloon with his feet is so powerful. It’s one you never forget.
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