Review of The Great Dictator (1940) by Kenneth L — 03 Sep 2009
Charlie Chaplin was the world's biggest movie star for a reason. This movie is a hilarious assault on Hitler, made at a time when no one in America really knew about the Holocaust yet. Despite the subject matter, this is an extraordinarily funny movie, with several great physical comedy sequences.
Chaplin gives an amazing double performance as a blustery, thinly disguised version of Hitler and as a nice, mild-mannered Jewish barber. Everything about it is pretty much amazing. The final speech, which clearly reflects Chaplin's own feelings of sadness with the state of the world, is no doubt sincere but really out of place and unconvincing, even though it may have been Chaplin's motivation to do the film.
The optimism he seems to find at the ending turned out to be badly mistaken. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic movie.
This review of The Great Dictator (1940) was written by Kenneth L on 03 Sep 2009.
The Great Dictator has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
