Chaplin's Plea for Peace

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2006)

I know many people prefer Charlie Chaplin when he's silent, but I have to rank this as my favorite Chaplin film, sound and all. This is one of those movies chock full of one memorable scene after another: Chaplin's hapless soldier trying to load and fire a giant gun; his goofy dictator cavorting with an inflatable beach ball designed to look like a globe of the world; his gentle barber trying to give a member of the Gestapo a shave. I've heard that Chaplin was put on Hitler's death list as a result of this film; I don't know whether that's true or not, but if he was I'm not surprised. I can't even imagine the guts it took to make a film that so obviously mocked such a scary historical figure. In a time when comedians mock our world leaders left and right, it's easy to forget that there were times (and still places today) when doing so could get you killed.
Without Chaplin's impassioned plea that closes the movie, in which he steps out of character and warns his audience directly about the consequences of ignoring the gathering storm of Nazi Germany (and fascism in general), "The Great Dictator" would be a marvelous comedy. With that plea, it becomes much more than merely a marvelous comedy; it becomes an important and inspiring historical document, that happens also to be pretty damn funny too.
Grade: A+