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:
- MC
- 03-07-2013, 10:37 PM
- Guest120615-3
- 03-08-2013, 04:54 AM
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.
- jokacz
- 03-08-2013, 07:00 AM
- Guest121613
- 03-08-2013, 04:32 PM
what a treasure +1000
- richguy2851
- 03-08-2013, 04:58 PM
And have we, or our governments, learned this lesson yet? The US is a great country, yet we are only the tallest midget.