The Story of A Great Dictator portrayed by A Greater Comedian in The Greatest Work of His Life.

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2018)

"I am sorry. i don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible - Jew, Gentile, Black man (or) White. We all want to help one other, humans beings are like that. We want to live by one other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to despise and hate one another; In this world, there is room for everyone - The Good Earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful.
But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned Men's souls, has barricaded the world with hatred, has goose-stepped the world into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but have shut ourselves in, machinery that gives abundance has left us in want, our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind, we think too much and feel too little.
More than machinery, we need humanity, more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness; without these qualities life would be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together, the very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now, my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.
To Those who can hear me I say, "Do not despair". The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and dictators die. The Power they took from the people shall return to the people and so long as Men die, Liberty shall never perish.
Soldiers, don't give yourselves in to brutes. Men who despise you, enslave you, regiment your lives - tell you what to do, what to think, what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you like cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machine, you are not cattle, you are Men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts, you don't hate - only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don't fight for slavery. Fight for Liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke it is written, "The Kingdom of God is within Man, not one man or within a group of men but in all men. In You, you the people have the power - the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of Democracy, let us use that power, let us all unite, let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future of old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie, they do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise, to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, Let Us All Unite!"
I am absolutely certain when I say that is the greatest work of art that was produced in the 1940s and in Chaplin's lifetime. In levels of art and accuracy, it is on par with Modern Times if not even better and in terms narrative of the story, only Limelight was more highlighted perhaps of because how close these topics were close to the great man's heart.
I have read through the reviews and most of the top ones giving it a 10 outta 10 are absolutely right in their statements. I can't possibly add anything better except that it is most non-funny work of comedy Chaplin ever wrote for the screen and by that I mean no insult or disrespect. The sense of drama and serene actuality was a necessity to tell such a story of grave depths, even though it is no way close to the actual persecution innocent people underwent through as was revealed in Victor Frankle's Man's Search for Meaning and other contemporary works of art that dealt in this particular situation.
You will miss something in your life should you choose not to watch this.