Flawed but sincere and still compelling

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2014)

As acclaimed as it is, I find The Great Dictator (1940) elicits mixed responses from movie geeks. Some count it as Chaplin's greatest triumph, while others feel it is preachy noise, proof that his brand of film-making was only effective in silence.
I'm in the middle on the matter. TGD is a flawed work, sure. It's too long and its political commentary is heavy-handed. Some of the jokes are too corny for their own good. But there are some great comic sequences, mostly involving the temperamental dictator Hynkel. His antics with the Mussolini stand-in are worth the two hour run time.
Many have criticized the ending speech, saying it feels tacked on or that the barber character was not eloquent enough to make up something like that, let alone on the spot the way he did. It's never felt that discordant to me, though. The speech is so humane and brilliant; my suspension of disbelief isn't stretched too much when those ideas come from the little barber.
This isn't Chaplin's masterpiece (Modern Times (1936) was his last great film, in my opinion), but its messages of peace and tolerance have kept it relevant through the decades.