72 years ago today....

72 years ago today, Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator was released in theaters. Directed by Chaplin, the film was his first feature film with full sound and was a satire on Hitler and the Nazi party. In the film, Chaplin plays the dual role of both a Jewish Barber (modeled after his silent film character The Tramp) and a dictator named Adenoid Hinkle. After all these years, the film still holds up as a great comedy, particularly the scenes between Hinkle and Napaloni, who is an obvious parody of Mussolini.

However, I think the film is best remembered for the speech Chaplin delivers at the very end. This occurs after the Jewish Barber and Hinkle have switched places. Even though it's from a film, it's still one of the most inspirational speeches I've ever heard:

Chaplin was truly a film genius. His use of long shots for comedy, close-ups for comedy was revolutionary and is still the film standard today. If you ever study film, you start on Chaplin. Reminds me to pop in one of his movies.

He loved the young shit:

http://www.chaplinalife.com/photo_essays/06.html

what a treasure +1000

And have we, or our governments, learned this lesson yet? The US is a great country, yet we are only the tallest midget.