THE GREAT DICTATORÂ (U)
D:Â Charles Chaplin
United Artists (Charles Chaplin)
USA 🇺🇸 1940
129 mins
Comedy/War
W:Â Charles Chaplin
DP: Karl Struss & Rollie Totheroh
Ed: Willard Nico
Mus: Meredith Willson
Charles Chaplin (Herr Hynkel / A Jewish Barber),
Paulette Goddard (Hannah), Jack Oakie (Napolini), Reginald Gardiner (Schultz), Henry Daniell (Garbitsch)
A
Charlie Chaplin classic, although it is quite heavy-going in parts, as it pokes fun at an incredibly difficult subject (although it should be noted that the whole truth of the Nazi regime was not
fully apparent when the film was released in 1940).
Chaplin does a great job aping Adolf Hitler in this satire, in
which he also has a Jewish barber fighting oppression from the streets of the Ghetto.
The slapstick does work, but it's in the serious moments that
the film becomes onerous, especially in the lengthy speech at the end which almost breaks the fourth wall as Chaplin instructs us all to love each other, or whatever and turns this into the very
propaganda piece that it set out poking fun of in the first place.
8/10