Funny & frightening.

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2001)

It's tough discovering Charlie Chaplin films like "The Great Dictator" and even "Modern Times." They put you through such a range of emotions from comedy through tragedy in one show that you feel schizophrenic. I guess that's more power to the artistry of Chaplin. "The Great Dictator" is obvious in it's sadness since it was done in 1940, and the movie finishes with such hope but looking back from our "modern times" we all know that there were five more miserable years of Nazi facism, concentration camps, and misery.
This is obviously a great propaganda piece, but there's much more to it than something like Olivier's jingoistic "Henry V" (another excellent film of the period). What I find refershing is how perceptive Chaplin is in his speech at the end to unite all religions and races etc. Sadly enough it sounds dated to our "modern" ears, sort of like John Lennon's "All You Need Is Love" must sound in this era of right-wing talk-radio pundits pushing "compassionate conservatism."
PS -- There's so much in this film that's eternal it's awkward reading some of the misinformation in the reviews, and people whining about the costumes or whatever. For instance, in the review from Aug 12, 2000 that they are using as the only review on the front page of IMDB. It wasn't the Hynkel/Dictator who was "endearing" in the gun & upside-down aeroplanes. I thought it was obvious that was the barber, who after his antics as a soldier crashed with Schultz and had amnesia.