Review of The Great Dictator (1940) by Blake P — 22 Apr 2012

After suffering a bout of amnesia after fighting in World War I, 20-years later, the man, who is a barber (Chaplin), returns home, only to find that his native land of Tomania has been taken over by ruthless dictator Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin).

Hynkel plans on creating a "perfect world". But the dictator has many problems to deal with on the way there-- including angry members of the ghetto, the dictator of Bacteria, Benzino Napaloni (Oakie) wanting to thwart his plans, and the barber, who happens to look just like him, gives him trouble.

"The Great Dictator" may not be considered the best of Charlie Chaplin's films, but in my opinion it is his most important one. Filmed at a time where the world feared Hitler, Chaplin made this movie to make the people laugh at something they were so scared of before.

What was considered just plain good old entertainment has turned into not only that today, but also a razor sharp political satire, definitely one of the best. If any other director had tried to make this film, it might not have been very good, but Chaplin, who obviously had very strong opinions about what was going on at the time, makes us not only laugh, but think about what the time period must have been like.

In the end, the film becomes one of the best anti-semitism movies, and Chaplin's speech at the end is seriously moving-- but we still can't forget that this is still one of the best comedies of all time.

So I'll get to that. Chaplin's writing is so perfect here-- this was his first true-talkie film, the outrageous characters, the Dictator for example, are so well written and so true-- it's almost shocking these weren't real people.

And he still relies on silent-esque slapstick to make laughs-- from the globe scene to the soldier brawl, it adds to his long list of hilarious moments. With top-notch support from Paulette Goddard (his then-wife), and Jack Oakie as well, "The Great Dictator" is just perfect.

Highly recommended.