If there is one person who can serve as an iconic image for the entire history of cinema, it is Sir Charles Chaplin. The British actor and director made not only a lasting contribution to the seventh art in early Hollywood, but also became the first truly global star with his popular silent comedies that, through their visual humour, easily transcended national and language barriers. Somewhat ironically, Chaplin’s commercially most successful, most critically acclaimed and, to a certain degree, best-known film is The Great Dictator, a 1940 satirical comedy which was not only the first true sound film in Chaplin’s career but also the first in which Chaplin’s fans could hear their favourite actor speak.
The film, also written and directed by Chaplin, was clearly inspired by the disturbing current events that would escalate into the Second World War. The plot begins in 1918, at the end of the First World War. Chaplin plays the protagonist, an unnamed Jewish barber who fights as a soldier for the fictional country of Tomania and during a chaotic battle manages to save the life of a pilot named Schultz (played by Reginald Gardiner). The protagonist is injured during the rescue and spends the next two decades in hospital suffering from amnesia. When he finally leaves hospital and returns to his old shop, he sees that his country has changed beyond recognition – after being defeated during the war, it went through an economic crisis, riots and finally ended up being ruled by Adenoid Hynkel (also played by Chaplin), a fascist dictator whose brutal regime, embodied in uniformed stormtroopers, crushed all traces of democracy and liberty and made life miserable for Jews.
As the protagonist tries to adapt to new and frightening realities in the Jewish ghetto, he meets Hannah (played by Paulette Goddard), a beautiful woman from the neighbourhood who helps him resist the stormtroopers. He escapes persecution thanks to Schultz, now a high-ranking official in Hynkel’s regime, who ultimately turns against Hynkel. In the meantime, Hynkel dreams of invading and conquering the neighbouring country of Osterlich and, in order to do so, wants to sign a treaty with Benzino Napaloni (played by Jack Oakie), the fascist dictator of Bacteria.
If there is one word that should describe The Great Dictator, it is “anti-fascist”. This is the best-known and arguably the most important anti-fascist film, at least from the era when being anti-fascist wasn’t as safe and fashionable as it is today and when actually confronting fascism meant taking serious risks. Chaplin was clearly disturbed by the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe and its most extreme and dangerous embodiment in Nazi Germany. His motive for making the film, however, wasn’t strictly political. The Great Dictator was a very personal film from Chaplin. Inspired by a casual remark about the physical resemblance between him and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, the famous actor recognised additional and disturbing similarities – both men were born almost at exactly the same time, both men had a similar physical stature and wore a similar moustache, both men rose from poverty, both men were masters in manipulating masses and in the 1930s Chaplin and Hitler were the most famous persons in the world. Chaplin used that similarity to create one of the most famous and effective impersonations in the world.
The character of Hynkel was based on careful study of Hitler’s speeches and public appearances; Chaplin altered it in a comical way in order to make Hynkel/Hitler look like a pathetic buffoon who hides deep personal insecurity with his grandiose speeches and verbal violence. When Chaplin tried to sound like Hitler, the result was somewhat less impressive – speaking gibberish with a few German words thrown in might have sounded funny in the 1930s or early 1940s, but not today, or at least not for an audience accustomed to characters speaking German in cinema. Chaplin was more successful in the famous scene during which Hynkel plays with a globe and which also benefited from Chaplin as composer of the score (co-written by Meredith Willson), inspired by Wagner, a composer who was also admired both by Chaplin and Hitler.
Chaplin played Hitler in this film, but he also played himself, clearly setting up the unnamed Jewish barber as a noble and almost heroic protagonist. Although Chaplin went on record as saying that his iconic Tramp character wouldn’t be used in sound films, there is a decades-long debate about whether the barber and the Tramp are the same person. In a couple of scenes Chaplin appears in the Tramp’s clothes, but it could be interpreted as a sort of fan service. A closer connection to Chaplin’s silent films can be found in the use of slapstick and physical comedy. Chaplin, whether through physical comedy or verbal tricks, delivers a great performance. He is helped by the rest of the cast, which includes Paulette Goddard, his wife at the time, who has good chemistry with her husband, although their characters’ relationship remains platonic. Henry Daniell and Billy Gilbert are good as Hynkel’s henchmen Garbitsch and Herring (clearly modelled on Hitler’s top lieutenants Goebbels and Göring), while Jack Oakie has a blast as a character modelled on Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini in a performance that would get him nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The Great Dictator is Chaplin’s best-known film, but it is also his most controversial. Controversies began even during its production in the late 1930s, when most people in the United States believed that global politics didn’t concern them and many Hollywood studios were wary of alienating Germany and its allies. This was one of the reasons why The Great Dictator used fictional countries and personalities instead of Germany and Hitler. The film’s subject became even more relevant with the start of the Second World War in Europe in September 1939, which coincided with the start of principal photography; when principal photography ended, Hitler had conquered France and become master of most of the European continent, making the film’s subject more relevant. However, Hitler’s reign of terror over hundreds of millions of people gave an unimaginably grim context to the theme of The Great Dictator and made many critics question whether it was appropriate to cover it in comedy. Chaplin would later give arguments against it by claiming that he would never have made the film if he had known the true scope of Nazi atrocities and what they would do in the Holocaust. During the war itself, however, The Great Dictator became a very effective tool of Allied propaganda, becoming extremely popular in the USA, Britain and France immediately after the liberation. Hitler’s regime, naturally, banned the film, although apocryphal stories tell that Hitler himself arranged private copies and even watched the film twice.
The biggest controversy, and one that lasts to this day, is whether The Great Dictator is as good as its reputation and whether it has truly stood the test of time. While it is funny and certainly effective in its condemnation of fascism, the film is at times stylistically uneven, with some jokes that don’t work and look dated. But the most criticism is reserved for the ending, which uses the simple plot device of mistaken identity almost as an afterthought. It looks like Chaplin’s desperate way to provide some sort of happy ending to a story that was getting increasingly desperate in real life. The result is the famous speech in which the barber, after being mistaken for Hynkel, is given the opportunity to address his supporters and the world, pleading for tolerance, democracy and peace. Although the speech seems out of place in this film and adds to its stylistic incoherence, it represents the true voice of Chaplin who, with more clarity than in any of his other films, expresses his deeply humanistic values. While the film’s subject might have ended as a sad chapter of the 20th century, what Chaplin says in the end still has merit and relevance for our world.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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