Topic > Critical Analysis of the Film The Great Dictator

In 1938, the world's most famous movie star began making a film about the beast of the twentieth century. Charlie Chaplin resembled Adolf Hitler, to some extent since Hitler had chosen a toothbrush mustache similar to that of the Little Tramp. Taking advantage of this similarity, Chaplin formulated a parody in which the despot and a Jewish barber from the ghetto would be confused with each other. The result, released in 1940, was "The Great Dictator," Chaplin's first sound film and the crowning achievement of his career, although it would cause him incredible challenges and, in an indirect way, lead to him being long marginalized by the United States. United. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In 1938, Hitler was not yet perceived by everyone as the paragon of horror. Surprising independent powers in America preached a non-interference approach in European affairs, and snippets of gossip about Hitler's strategy to eradicate the Jews were invited by groups hostile to the Semites. Some of Hitler's most punctual opponents, who were remembered as hostile to the Franco-American volunteers for the Spanish Civil War, were later considered "premature anti-fascists"; fighting against despotism when Hitler was still thought to be a partner, they raised doubts that they might be socialists. “The Great Dictator” ended with a long speech rebuking dictatorships and praising democracy and individual opportunity. On the one hand this sounded like basic American qualities, but to some on the right it seemed rosy. Chaplin's film, aimed squarely and hatefully at Hitler himself, might have been interesting, he says in his collection of memoirs, on the off-chance. who had not yet experienced the full degree of Nazi cunning. As it seemed, the film's focus on Hitler limited it to Spain, Italy and independent Ireland. In any case, in America and elsewhere, it had an effect that, today, might be difficult to imagine. There had never been an anecdotal character as beloved as the Little Tramp, and despite the fact that Chaplin didn't actually play the Tramp in "The Great Dictator," he simply resembled him, this time not in a comic tale but in a character political. parody. The plot is one of those mixtures that make the activity difficult to conceive. Legend, a barber officer in World War I, spares the life of a German pilot named Schultz and flies him to safety, all the while, without realizing he was the adversary. Their accidental arrival gives the barber amnesia and for a long time he has no idea what his identity is. Then he recovers and returns to his barber in the nation of Tomania (say it so anyone can hear), only to find that the tyrant Hynkel has come to power, not under the swastika, but under the Double Cross. His shock troops are crossing the ghetto, breaking windows and rounding up Jews (the expression "extermination camp" is used early, without pretension). Be that as it may, the barber shop is saved through the intercession of Schultz, currently an associate priest, who remembers him. The barber (never named, much the same as the Tramp) is in love with the cleaning lady Hannah (Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's alienated wife at the time). Furthermore, he becomes known to his previous neighbors. In any case, he and the backstabbing Schultz are eventually placed in an inhumane prison, and then, Hynkel has a sailing accident, is confused with the barber, and imprisoned in the camp just as the barber and Schultz escape - with the Hynkel uniform. . Currently the barber is accepted by all as thetyrant. According to Chaplin's exemplary costume, the film has an extravaganza of comic suffocation and emulation, incorporating Hynkel's famous expressive dance with an expanded inflatable that makes the globe his toy. It is there that five men munch on puddings after being told that the person who finds a coin must give his life to kill Hynkel. None of them need to discover the coin and there is a cheat, but in the long run see with your own eyes. Plus there's a long, clever scene in which the despot of neighboring Bacteria, Benzini Napaloni, pays a state visit. Napaloni, clearly demonstrated on Mussolini, escapes the attempt to make him sit in a low seat so that the low Hynkel can hover over him. Also, when they both sit in nearby barber chairs, they take turns moving the chair higher than the other. There is also a lot of disorder in the greetings, and Chaplin interrupts shots of the two despots with newsreels of large cheering groups. In 1940, this would have been interpreted as exceptionally loaded, because Chaplin was pitching his comic persona against Hitler in an attempt. , generally fruitful, to mock it as comical. Audiences responded unequivocally to the film's humor; it won five Oscar nominations, for picture, screen character, supporting actor, screenplay and music. In any case, viewers then, and ever since, felt as if the film reached a dead end when the barber, imitating Hynkel, delivers a three-minute-plus monologue addressing Chaplin's point of view. Remarkably, no one tries. to stop the fake 'Hynkel.' Chaplin speaks directly into the camera, with his voice, without comic contact and only with three cutaways, as the barber is heard on the radio all over the world. What he says is genuine enough, but he flattens out the satire and parts of the speech, followed by a dose of Goddard plot against the sky, blissfully facing the future sans hynkel, while the music swells. It didn't work then and it doesn't work now. It's deadly when Chaplin abandons his comedic persona, unexpectedly changes the tone of the film, and leaves us wondering how much he'll talk (a question that should never come up during a parody). The film plays like a satire pursued by a publication. The film, which was the first of Chaplin's non-silent films, premiered in 1940 and sparked much discussion in Europe. Hitler banned the film in Germany and every single country involved (though he supposedly procured a duplicate which he saw twice), and it remained restricted to Spain until Franco died in 1975. In America, be that as it may, the film was a notable commercial success and was the highest-earning film of the year, grossing $2 million. However, numerous politicians disapproved. When North Dakota Senator Gerald P. Nye, a neutralist, accused Hollywood of making mainstream films that were propaganda vehicles calling for Americans to open up to war, he referred to The Great Dictator as one of his models. Looking back, calling The Great Dictator propaganda seems ridiculous in contrast to the fascist propaganda films of the Second World War, which were all about steady energy, not essential human conventionality, as Chaplin had done. Chaplin, in any case, was determined to keep the talk; may have been his explanation behind the making of the film. He set aside the Little Tramp and $1.5 million of his own money to vilify Hitler (and was instrumental in driving more and more millions of people into Jewish displacement). He has owned his expression, he has found a huge group of spectators, and in the features that pave the way for the last speech, he shows his natural.