The Great Dictator (1940, Charlie Chaplin)
I must admire Charlie Chaplin. This movie, in which he mocks Hitler and the Nazis (as well as Mussolini), came out as early as 1940. According to IMDb, Chaplin said that had he known the true extent of Nazi atrocities, he “could not have made fun of their homicidal insanity”. Still, it was brave at the time and must have been an extraordinary experience. Supposedly, Hitler himself watched it and Chaplin said that he would “give anything to know what he thought of it.” One can only imagine.
Anyway, I thought it was good, not great. At times I felt like it got stuck in the limbo between comedy and tragedy, and that made it awkward.
There are a couple of really great scenes. One of them has Chaplin, as Hynkel the dictator, play with an inflatable globe. It’s hilarious and meaningful. Another really good scene is the speech at the end, but again, it doesn’t fit with the comedy, so it didn’t entirely work for me. It feels very out of place and is clearly politically charged.
Some of the satire is really sharp, and I did enjoy the very funny opening scenes with the soldier and the big gun. While awkward at first to hear Chaplin speak, I got used to it, and really enjoyed his dual roles here.
While the movie had some problems, it’s still definitely worth watching.
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