Confronting

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2017)

This is probably the film that Chaplin is best known for, even though it isn't actually one of the films from the repertoire of silent classics. In a way it is not so much a criticism of Fascism in Europe but rather a criticism of US isolationism. However, it doesn't necessarily seem to be that as Chaplin seems to be making a mockery of the fascist dictators in Europe as opposed to actually confronting his viewers with the reality of the situation, and while in a sense we may, at least at this time, consider Hitler to be something of a joke, the reality of the horrors weren't going to come to the fore until much later.
The film beings in World War I, where a Jewish barber is fighting on the Front Lines, and then ends up not only saving a pilot, but after crashing the plane ending up in hospital with amnesia. Twenty years later we have him leave the hospital and return to the ghetto to see that in one sense nothing has changed, but in another sense quite a lot has changed. The thing is that the Jews up to that time have always lived in Ghettos, and have always suffered persecution under the hands to those around them, however things seemed to be getting a lot worse.
The Great Dictator cuts between Hynkle, who is played by Chaplin, and the Barber, who is also played by Chaplin. The Hynkle scenes are in a sense a lot of slapstick, in a way that politicians are mocked. It is similar with the barber scenes, yet Chaplin seems to be trying to challenge us with the problems that the Jews were living under at the time, and the nature of extreme racism. However, he also seemed to be trying to open our eyes to the fact that this wasn't just the case in Germany, but everywhere. The thing was that nobody particularly cared about the Jews, which is why Hitler was able to get away with what he did, though we must remember that he did work to cover the holocaust up somewhat.
It isn't a silent film though, which sort confronted me at least since Chaplin was one of the masters of the silent era. However, I doubt it would have worked as one. What is interesting though are the speeches. Obviously there is the great speech that is delivered at the end, which is in effect let's stop being mean to each other and start to learn to actually get along. We also have Hynkle's speeches which are basically gibberish. At first I thought he may have been just mocking Hitler, but there is also that essence with the idea that it is not the content that actually matters, but the energy with which it is delivered. In a way Hitler, like many other populist politicians, are able to get people on side simply by telling them what they want to hear. Also, one could even suggest that the content could be drastically changed, but as long as the energy that delivered the original speech is replicated, then people will simply continue to follow along blindly, which is why the barber was able to get away with what he did.