The Tramp Comes of Age: Chaplin's Crowning Masterpiece of Comedy and Political Satire

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2011)

Most of Chaplin's silent film efforts were whimsical slap-stick comedies with slight undertones of social satire: booting the rear of an immigrant official, escaping the clutches of fool-hardy police, or being trapped inside a mechanized factory. The Tramp, the first iconic figure of the new medium of film/cinema, was the nameless but lovable immigrant, not knowing quite where he fit in. Always on the periphery of the establishment but ultimately of a kindly and innocent nature, the Tramp was endeared by audiences across America and Europe. For those coming to Ellis Island for the first time to forge new lives in a America, Chaplin's comedy probably reflected their grappling with this alien world. But on the surface, the main point was always entertainment, mostly comedic and occasionally sentimental but never biting. And then, Chaplin fused both comedy and political/social commentary into a film which really does make quite a political point.
The Great Dictator is one of the best mingling of social satire and comedy, a brilliant and effective combination of entertainment and commentary to ridicule fascism which had taken over Germany and Italy. The Tramp or nameless barber is a private at the very end of World War I fighting for the fictional country of Tomainia. He along with a pilot escapes from the front lines, crashing in a plane, luckily just in time for the Armistice. But the Tramp is hospitalized for 20 years, and he suffers memory loss, and doesn't know the country is under new leadership.
His country has put their faith in a new leader, Adenoid Hynkel, who looks one helluva lot like a cross between Adolph Hitler and Charlie Chaplin. In this country, Jews are being targeted. After leaving the hospital, the Tramp returns to his barber shop. He is immediately assaulted by policeman in helmets with armbands with crosses. A scuffle and chase ensues in typical Chaplin fashion, with lots of running around and a head being banged more than once, the service being provided by a woman in an upper window. As he navigates down the streets while evading authorities, he sees the word "JEW" written in bold letters on shops and windows.
Eventually the film cuts to behind-the-scenes of Adenoid Hynkel, the new Great Leader of Tomainia. My favorite aspect of this film is the portrayal of the Leader/Dictator. He's pompous, arrogant, and vain, so exaggerated he would give Stalin and Hitler a run for their money, or would he? He has a military officer lick his envelope, and is simultaneously having his portrait painted and his bust sculpted. He ceases persecution of the Jews, not out of moral indignation, but he wants to borrow money from one of them! The Dictator then makes speeches on loud-speakers in a kind of gibberish which sounds German-like, with the words sour kraut repeated many times. In a couple of crazy scenes, the Dictator is shown bouncing around a large medicine ball which looks like the world. In another, he confronts another Dictator who looks like Mussolini, and they engage in a race to the top in barber chairs! Then the awful helmeted police are after the barber, presumably because he's Jewish. Through a crazy series of madcap adventures, not unlike many of his silent films, the Tramp, who looks like the Dictator, eventually is mistaken for him, and compelled to make a speech, one of the greatest in cinematic history.
What the Nazis were doing in Germany and then in Europe was no joke, but Mel Brooks pointed out that the only way to deal with their hypocrisy, prejudice, and ultimate lunacy, is to laugh at them. And that's what Chaplin did many years before Brooks' "The Producers". But inter-spliced in Chaplin's comedy is a very caustic criticism of fascism. Of course, the reality of the Holocaust was not known to Chaplin at the time of production, and I don't believe he was making light of Nazi atrocity. At the same time, by pointing out the ridiculousness of fascist dictators, Chaplin was really harpooning those who put themselves above others as infallible and the ludicrous behavior which goes with it, usually blind adoration. Ultimately, the Dictator is just a Tramp.