#5 - The Great Dictator (1940)

I promised lighthearted. I deliver. 

Today's movie, to put a halt to my obsession over psychotic killers, is Charlie Chaplin's the Great Dictator. It has plenty of funny moments but whether you find it funny depends on your taste. Then again, there are a lot of different humoristic styles to appeal to a wide audience. You have plenty of slapstick humor (which nowadays is very hard to find done right), social commentary, parody, and very clever, subtle jokes.

"I'm sorry?" "No, I was just chewing." Genius.

I have seen another Chaplin movie, Modern Times (1936), in social studies and loved it, mostly for the fact that most of it was silent. As in, you don't need words to be funny. It sort of bothered me that in the Great Dictator there was a lot more dialogue that takes time away from the visual gags and slapstick. Still, the plot exceeded my expectations.

The satirized versions of Hitler and Mussolini are hilarious, particularly the way they speak and the silly situations they get into. The military display or the food fight stand out. And of course you have the famous scene where Hynkel fantasizes about conquering the world and fucks around with an inflatable globe. That kind of flat-out silly moments really make the movie timeless. It is a great movie maker's version of "derp, im hitler lolz" and pretty much anyone can enjoy that. Except maybe for butthurt Germans (no offense.)

Honestly, wouldn't you do that if you were a power-hungry dictator? Or is it just me?

But aside from making fun of two of the most despised people in the past century, the social commentary behind it is fantastic taking into account the time this movie was released. I doubt the tone of the movie would have been the same if at the time the rest of the world was aware of the horrors of Nazi Germany, but the depiction of racial/religious abuse is still very good. And how can you forget that final speech. It has to be one of the best speeches in the story of cinema and really stuck to me.

Here's a Youtube link. You're welcome.

It is a pretty enjoyable movie, if you're into that kind of humor. Otherwise I admit it can get kind of boring at times.