| Running Time: 128 mins.
Unrated
I am a huge Charlie Chaplin fan. I think that this was one of the most talented people ever to walk in front of a camera (or work behind a camera, for that matter). His most famous character, is of course, the Little Tramp, that ragamuffin clown who stole virtually everyone’s heart and soul during the silent era. In fact, during the silent era, the Tramp was king. But movies started to talk with The Jazz Singer - and as movies began to get more technically sophisticated, audiences began to expect talking. I mean let’s face it - if say, oh, George Lucas or James Cameron tried to release a silent picture today, they’d be laughed out of Hollywood, despite their reputations, and whomever they had starring in it. So, during the thirties, as movies got noisier, the Tramp got left behind. I remember the bit in Richard Attenborough’s biography Chaplin starring Robert Downey Jr. where Charlie is asking everyone - “What would the Tramp say? The Tramp is silent! He will always be silent!” Well, even Chaplin was wrong from time to time.
The Great Dictator is one of the most hilarious parodies ever made, and it parodizes one of the most terrifying figures and empires of all time - Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Chaplin plays dual roles in the film - The Tramp, a Jewish barber who returns to his home only to find it threatened by the (very) evil empire he once fought for. He also plays Adenoid Hynkel, the dictator of Tomania, and you have never, ever (nor will you ever) see a funnier dictator out to control the world. The classic scene where he bounces a globe around in his office for his own amusement is hilarious, yet pointed and barbed at the same time (Remember, this movie was made in 1940 - before the Americans had entered World War II). In fact, much of the humour in this movie is sharp, in some cases, painfully sharp, as we watch it with the benefit of 50 years hindsight. The first time I saw it all the way through, I was awestruck at some of the dialogue - and delighted at the technical sophistication for a first time ‘talkie’ (Chaplin had never done a sound picture prior to 1940).
Yes, this movie pretty much belongs to Charlie Chaplin, but he does get some able support out of one of his favourite leading ladies, Paulette Goddard, as well as some deft touches from Jack Oakie.
What really sets this movie apart from most of the rest of the Hollywood dreck (even in 1940 there was a lot of dreck, it just didn’t cost as much as it does today) is the finale. Chaplin steps right out of his character and faces the camera, delivering an emphatic and astonishing speech - an eloquent plea for the triumph of reason over mindless militarism. It was, without a doubt one of (if not the) first times that Hollywood ever let an actor give a speech like that in a movie. I guess it really helps that Chaplin wrote and directed the film for what amounts to his own studio.
This movie is not only a classic film, but a classic piece of history. It is a definite must for every aficionado’s home library, whether you really like Chaplin or not. |
