For those unfamiliar with this flick, The Great Dictator, it’s time to get familiar. For your sanity. This political satire about Nazi Germany (called Tomania in the parody) features two main characters, both played by Charlie Chaplin — one a ruthless dictator named Adenoid Hynkel (Hitler) and his Jewish doppelgänger, a humble barber, who mysteriously has no name. The barber ends up joining the resistance movement, eventually impersonating Hynkel to further their cause.
In this increasingly polarized political climate, satire reigns supreme. Ask Gavin Newsom about his meteoric rise in popularity nationwide following his ruthless, satirical social media posts. It could not be clearer: we need to laugh at the horrors around us. Laughing = not accepting the shit “they” dole out.
The speech in this clip could not be more pertinent to what is happening in our country at this very moment. It is riveting.
Though Charlie Chaplin, renowned for his silent films, was highly skeptical of talkies when they first emerged, this, his first talkie, was brilliant. An amazingly talented man, Charlie Chaplin wrote the script and songs, directed, produced, and also starred in this black satire.
The timing of the movie’s release, Oct. 31, 1940, could not have been better, hitting Hitler below the belt in the middle of the Third Reich’s reign, with its pointed message and mockery of the dictator. The Nazi regime banned the film in Germany and all Nazi-occupied territories, though Hitler was known to have seen it and found it amusing. Charlie Chaplin was quoted as saying: “I’d give anything to know what he thought of it.”
You can find a transcription of this incredible speech at CharlieChaplin.com. And the full movie can be viewed on numerous platforms:
Chris Andrews, Having watched virtually all of Charlie Chaplin‘s fils (silent and modern), „The Dictator“ is, I think, the master‘s greatest.
In „Limelight,“ 1952, Mr. Chaplin had the greatness to give the leading role to his silent-era rival, Buster Keaton.
Another great political speech is that of Mr. Chaplin‘s young son, Michael, in 1957, „A King in New York,“ where the young boy eloquently argues for freedom and atoms for peace:
https://imgur.com/gallery/do-i-have-to-be-communist-to-read-karl-marx-41whcek