#65 The Great Dictator

In Summary

Charlie Chaplin's first 'talkie', The Great Dictator was an incredibly early satire of Nazi Germany, coming in 1940, intended as a wake-up call for Americans to motivate the country to join the Second World War.

The Great Dictator also carries a deeper personal meaning for Charlie Chaplin, exploring his neurosis about the similarities between himself and Adolf Hitler. Not only did they share similar facial hair, but were born just four days apart and had a similar rise from poverty to international fame at around the same time.

Charlie Chaplin's son is quoted as saying "Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. "Just think", he would say uneasily, "he's the madman, I'm the comic. But it could have been the other way around"

This neurosis is central to The Great Dictator, where Chaplin plays the roles of a simple Jewish barber - with a very similar dress-code and mannerisms to his Little Tramp character - and of the dictator, Hynkel. Those two leading roles not only play into the film's ultimate farce, but appear to be a way for Chaplin to attempt to reconcile his perceived similarities with Hitler.

The plot of The Great Dictator primarily follows the Jewish barber as he recovers from amnesia to find that his community is under attack from the state, led by its dictator, Adenoid Hynkel. The film cuts intermittently to Hynkel's machinations, exposing his ridiculousness and insecurities through various comic set-pieces.

The comedy of The Great Dictator is built on the same foundations as Chaplin's silent films, occurring largely through physical, immaculately-timed set-pieces. Chaplin doesn't let the possibilities of spoken dialogue distract from the art form upon which his career was established, although that is not to say that The Great Dictator doesn't make use of the ability to speak.

The nonsense speeches delivered by Hynkel recall Chaplin's previous spoken words in Modern Times, but it is the final speech, delivered in plain English and almost directly to the audience that it seems Chaplin was most keen on using the film for.

If the message of The Great Dictator had been relatively subtle for most of its running time, the final speech - where the barber/Little Tramp has unwittingly stepped into Hynkel's place - is a treatise against Nazism, fascism and war. It is delivered with a burning sense of urgency and outrage that remains impactful to this very day.

A Memorable Quote
The only proper way to represent the final speech in this film is to show it in all its glory.

Things You May Not Know

• Adolf Hitler banned the film in Germany, although apparently watched it twice. It took until 1958 for the film to be shown in the country to a general audience.
• Chaplin has since stated that had he known about the true extent of the Holocaust, he could not have possibly made a comedy about Nazi Germany.
• During the five-minute final speech, Chaplin blinks less than ten times.

One of the Greatest of All Time?
There are some great moments in The Great Dictator but it feels at times that Chaplin hasn't quite figured out how to make best use of the possibilities of the spoken word, which makes the film's pacing feel slightly unbalanced. That said, Chaplin's passion for the subject burns through, which, by the end of the film, overcomes any deficiencies in the storytelling.

While Chaplin's best work undoubtedly came during the silent-era, The Great Dictator is a demonstration that Chaplin had the ability to transcend that one form of filmmaking.