Excellent!

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2016)

The Great Dictator was by far the most direct cinematic manifestation of Chaplin's politics, which he had been exploring for decades in his silent comedies, but had been sharpened by his experiences touring the world in the early 1930s. His previous feature, Modern Times (1936), was his most "political" film to date, and in that masterpiece he demonstrated how fluidly he could merge the political and the comical, turning out a "message movie" that went down smoothly. The same is true for much of The Great Dictator, which is a frequently hilarious film that boldly uses caricature and satire to ridicule the leading despots of the early 20th century. Even many years later than it's first appearance on the screen this movie is more updated than ever! The totalitarianism and alienation of people are now a daily reality. Like their release of Modern Times last fall, Criterion has done fantastic work with The Great Dictator, giving us a new 2K high-definition transfer taken from a combination of a 35mm fine-grain master positive and a 35mm duplicate negative. Extensive digital restoration has removed virtually all signs of age and damage without losing the image's grain structure and film like appearance. All in all, there are no complains here, or even minor quibbles, for that matter. The image is sharp, well-detailed, and beautifully rendered in gray scale, with good black levels and excellent contrast. The monaural soundtrack, transferred at 24-bit from the sound negative and digitally restored, likewise gives the film a new lease on life. There are no cracks, pops, or ambient hiss, and the dialogue and sound effects are clear and precise.