Well-regarded for a reason

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2017)

THE GREAT DICTATOR is well-regarded as Charlie Chaplin's best movie and it's easy to see why. This is the film in which he mercilessly satirises Adolf Hitler, then at the peak of his ascendancy, while also exploring the persecution of the Jews under the Nazi regime. It's all disguised as another country and regime but we know it's Hitler that Chaplin is taking the mickey out of. It's a broad, character-based comedy all right, but deals with huge and pressing themes, and Chaplin deserves kudos for being the little man who stood up to a tyrant.