The Great Dictator

Seeing as my movie recommendation thread went nowhere - I thought I'd review this film as I feel like talking about it. I'll be brief

Story
Charlie Chaplin plays a jewish Barber, and Adolf Hitler, which they parody and I believe they renamed him Hinkle or something to that degree. So you'll mainly be watching Charles act flamboyantly and silly as Hitler, and as the barber he finds himself in his usually clumsy mischief  

Charlie meets some friends along the way. Paulette Goddard's a stunner
Quality
Historically, this is a very interesting movie. This film was written, directed, and starred by Charlie Chaplin in 1940, and apparently Hitler himself watched this twice. This is the first "talkie" that Charlie acted in, all the rest of his films until now were silent movies. The humour actually holds up very very well today. Feels like a bugs bunny program at times with the slap-stick comedy. Some scenes are very long and the joke goes on for a little bit longer than what you'll be used to - but sometimes a joke will start funny - kind of trail of into being weird- then it will come full circle and make you laugh again with how long and ridiculous some of the gags go on for. One of a kind. One specific scene Adolf Hinkle gets really angry at one of his generals and begins yelling gibberish (German) and stripping his badges off of his uniform one by one, and his outfit is just coated in badges. After about a minute of this there are no more badges so Charlie starts ripping buttons off his shirt and undoing his suspenders. Hilarious

The ending of this movie really takes a spin - and yes - this is one of the last moments of the movie - but I would say you can't really spoil plot points in this movie because its a comedy for the most part. Being a WWII film there are a long of strong motifs of democracy and kindness.


Charlie Chaplin turns around and blew me away with this scene of superb acting and a even more profound underlining message that was really the standout moment in the film. Throughout the laughs and silliness, there was a serious message being sent that humanity needs to remember that we are all in this together. I've always been a fan of soliloquy's and this was just a shiver inducing performance. Watch the clip, hopefully you'll give this movie a view