Director Charles Chaplin
Staring Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
Rated G
Legendary

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel’s regime.

This weekend marked the 76th anniversary of the release in New York of Charlie Chaplin’s first all-talking all-sound movie The Great Dictator.

Movies as old as The Great Dictator run the risk of becoming dated and for the want of a better term ‘meh. This was not the case here and it is probably a testament to the genius of Charles Chaplin. There is a lot that can be said about Chaplin’s genius and if I had a film studies degree this review would probably be a lot longer than it is going to be because I would spend some time talking about it in great detail. All I’m going to say about it is that he made the mundane task of firing a cannon hilarious.
Even with all this comedy, Chaplin managed to maintain an overall serious tone to the movie and I highly recommend that you watch this movie at least once, if only for the speech at the end of the movie. The final speech is the moment that everybody remembers about the Great Dictator and that scene makes this movie just as relevant now as it was back in 1940, but while I was watching it today I was struck by another moment between Hynkel and Schultz (Chaplin and Reginald Gardiner) when Schultz said “Your cause is doomed to failure because its built on the stupid ruthless persecution of innocent people. Your policy is worse than a crime it’s a tragic blunder” something a few potential politicians in the spotlight of mass media need to realise. The sooner the better.