Probably the most important and defining film of the XXth Century ...

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2011)

Both were born in the 'Old Continent', some days apart in April 1889, both had vaguely similar features incarnated by their memorable toothbrush mustaches  more importantly, both would become the most famous men of their era: Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, international stars for the better and for the worse, in the twilight of 1939.
Despite their similar backgrounds, the two men represent the opposite poles of humanity. One dedicated his life for silent comedy as a universal language meant to inspire the purest and most human emotions, while the other turned the country of Kant into a supremacist nation, justifying such atrocities as invasions, mass murders and ultimately, genocide. Chaplin was a man of emotions, Hitler of a rationalism whose meaning was twisted until it became synonym of bestial superiority: the law of the strongest, or mechanical thinking, through the dedication to technology in total contempt for the emotions that resonate for Nazis as the language of the weak. "The Great Dictator" is Chaplin's answer to this absurdity, a message that speaks for Humanity: universal, inspirational  and hilarious.
One scene incarnates the universality of silent comedy, the 'globe ballet', illustrating with a poetic finesse, the devastating ambitions and the madness inherent not just to Hynkel, but to all the dictators in the world, the balloon popping at the end is the prophetic reminder that justice triumphs sooner or later. The whole film contains many classic Chaplin moments including the iconic shaving with Brahms's Hungarian Violins reminding how Nazism dishonored the beautiful heritage of its civilization, other scenes include the confrontation between Hynkel and Napolini, the dictation, and the inflamed speech in German-sounding gibberish. In "City Lights", Chaplin used gibberish to humorously denounce sound's futility, in "The Great Dictator", Hynkel's gibberish sounds like barks reminding what Hitler's voices incarnated to the oppressed people, something inhuman, hateful, violent ... still, better to be mocked than wept over.
Chaplin's treatment, more than in any of his films, tackles a difficult subject with the perfect mix of comedy and drama, incarnated by Hannah, Paulette Goddard whose illuminating beauty represents the driving force of the film, as the eternal dream on a brighter tomorrow, as the virginal wound in people's devastated hearts. Never losing faith in humanity, Hannah epitomizes Anne Franck's famous "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart" The tender relationship with the Jewish barber demonstrates the evilness of an ideology that prevented people from the simplest things, simply from being human. In the 'coin in the pudding' scene, one of the funniest, we realize that despite all the noblest feelings, the men from the ghetto are just ordinary guys who don't necessarily want to be heroes, a subtle but no less clever depiction of Jewish humor, subtle mix of wit and self-derision.
Chaplin said that if he'd known the extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazi, he couldn't have made fun of it. This is a honest and admirable recognition of the value of comedy, it's not a weapon but it attacks, not rational but it makes you think, whatever takes itself too seriously is put in its place and whatever is mocked by the majority gets an extra level of depth and poignancy. This is probably why Chaplin was uneasy with the gap between Hynkel and the 'original' dictator who forever marked the course of history, the comedy is still innocent enough to be regarded as an answer to Nazism's horrific barbarity. Which might explain why a few films made fun of Hitler after "The Great Dictator" and why most of the comedic takes on Hitler were from Jewish directors, as if one had to carry the wound of the tragedy to translate it into laughs, as a posthumous attempt to strike back against the evil, humor as a defensive, almost cathartic, process  I guess.
I also guess Chaplin believed in that and unconsciously saw himself as one of the oppressed people, whether they were Jewish or Gentle, Black or White, he saw himself as part of humanity. And this is where the universality of "The Little Tramp" relies on, he's the "Little Fellow" who speaks for all the little fellows in the world, with thrilling words expressing the very principles Chaplin stood for: kindness, love, brotherhood, happiness, universality. It's not the Jewish barber but Chaplin himself delivering the most beautiful and intelligently inspirational message transcending the bounds of Cinema. Chaplin who never spoke, finally let out all his emotions, beliefs and feelings, so important that the fact that he was out of the character, wasn't relevant.
The climactic speech rejects the barbarity of Nazism, fascism, any ugly word ending with -ism, rejects machinery that became synonym of alienation and destruction as foreshadowed in his previous "Modern Times", and accepts technology only as an instrument to unite people, to strengthen human spirit, solidarity, empathy. Not Tomania, or Bacteria, Chaplin, spoke from the bottom of his heart, a place named Utopia, a beautiful dream, we tend to reach every day. Like a true prophet of his era, Chaplin, ahead of his time, points the danger of Nazism. The applauds at the end indirectly highlights the fantastic aspect of the film, released in 1940 when the worst was to come.
But Chaplin made his point and the film works as fantasy with the last metamorphosis of a character, proving that justice can triumph over fanaticism and while other film-makers imagined cold-blooded killers machine-gunning Adolf Hitler with an orgasmic satisfaction, Chaplin appeals to humanity, asks people to think as one indivisible brotherhood, no nations, no frontiers, no use of malicious technologies, only kindness and humble intelligence to put wings in human souls so they can fly to rainbows of hope.
Not just Chaplin's ultimate masterpiece, "The Great Dictator" is one of the most humanistic cinematic message that never lost its resonance, not even after 70 years. Thank you, Mr. Chaplin!