The Great Dictator (1940)
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(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) 
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Man, all I can say about this one is this. Excellent stuff. This gem from 1940 pits master comedian Charlie Chaplin absolutely tearing apart the European dictatorships of the time. Before the US even got involved.
You'll find yourself in a mix of laughing hysterically and just in jaw-dropping disbelief at some of the scathing parody here. Chaplin brilliantly pulls off the dual role of 'Adenoid Hynkel' and 'The Jewish Barber', and Jack Oakie's 'Benzino Napolini' is equally magnificent.
However, at times the gags can get a little tiresome and repetitive. Especially some of the faux-Deutsch ramblings. And the whole bit with the 'balloon' globe went on just a hair too long, and had a rather predictable ending... But for some reason you could almost imagine "that other guy" doing the same thing....
And the end of the film brings a downright somber ending to the rest of the laugh-fest. However I think this is 100% on purpose, and brings the entire film to a sharp point. Without it, I doubt it would have carried the same punch, and would have been dismissed as just another comedic journey. The monologue here is one of the best written and moving bits I've heard in a long time.
I highly recommend this film, if nothing else just to see Chaplin in a rare speaking role, and his ability to execute such a serious-yet-dead-funny picture.
Technorati Tags: war movies, the great dictator, charlie chaplin, hitler, mussolini, parody, satire
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The Great Dictator (2 Disc Special Edition) List Price: Sale Price: $29.74 You save: $0.24 (1%)  Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days  |
Description
Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft's absorbing documentary, "The Tramp and the Dictator," backgrounds Chaplin and Hitler (who were born a few days apart) and gives a detailed account of The Great Dictator's production. Twenty-five minutes of color fo
Since Adolf Hitler had the audacity to borrow his mustache from the most famous celebrity in the world--Charlie Chaplin--it meant Hitler was fair game for Chaplin's comedy. (Strangely, the two men were born within four days of each other.) The Great Dictator, conceived in the late thirties but not released until 1940, when Hitler's war was raging across Europe, is the film that skewered the tyrant. Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel, the power-mad ruler of Tomania, and a humble Jewish barber suffering under the dictator's rule. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, plays the barber's beloved; and the rotund comedian Jack Oakie turns in a weirdly accurate burlesque of Mussolini, as a bellowing fellow dictator named Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin himself hits one of his highest moments in the amazing sequence where he performs a dance of love with a large inflated globe of the world. Never has the hunger for world domination been more rhapsodically expressed. The slapstick is swift and sharp, but it was not enough for Chaplin. He ends the film with the barber's six-minute speech calling for peace and prophesying a hopeful future for troubled mankind. Some critics have always felt the monologue was out of place, but the lyricism and sheer humanity of it are still stirring. This was the last appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, and not coincidentally it was his first all-talking picture. --Robert Horton
DVD Information
Binding: DVDAspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Brand: Warner
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Original Release Date:
Actors:
- Charles Chaplin
- Paulette Goddard
- Jack Oakie
- Reginald Gardiner
- Henry Daniell
Features
- The U.S. was not yet in World War II when Chaplin leveled his comedy arsenal at Der Fuehrer by playing the dual roles of Hitler-like Adenoid Hynkel and a Jewish barber who is a dead-ringer look-alike for der Nutsie. Puns, sight gags and slapstick abound as Chaplin skewers fascism, balancing his attack with poignant scenes of a ghetto in the clutches of storm-trooping terror. Immortal bits include
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