The Great Dictator (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

The Great Dictator is as relevant today as it was when it skewered Hitler and his gang of Fascist bigots back in 1940. It took aim at Hitler but its target could easily be any warmongering regime from any period of history. The parallels are all there. Chaplin addresses each of them and does it well. His character Hynkel is a bumbling and ineffective "leader". He's driven by greed. As the film unfolds it's obvious his greed is rooted in feelings of inferiority. The more his mouth moves the less he says. His economic policies are a disaster-to wage war he has to borrow money from the "enemy". He is petty beyond belief. Ultimately, without an "enemy" to point toward, he's nothing. His entire mantra-loss of liberty, racial persecution, lust for control and so on-is all for one thing: he has to cover the fact that he can't rise to the level of the most humble of those he torments. This is a fundamental truth about people who lust for conquest. Chaplin illustrates it brilliantly.

The film isn't perfect. Chaplin and his crew weren't entirely comfortable when working with sound. Many scenes have dialogue but lack background noise. It was a common fault of the time though. The players have an assortment of accents. The Tomanians (with the exception of Herring) sound British. As the Jewish barber Chaplin sounds British. Many of the Jews in the Ghetto sound Jewish but Palette Goddard as Hannah, sounds as if she came from Queens. There are at least a couple of interludes that interfere with the continuity of the film. These are small complaints though. There are many scenes that have never been bettered. One is the episode with the coins and the cakes. On its own it's pure comedic brilliance. Combined with the statement it makes about the utter ridiculousness of martyrdom for its own sake (not to mention the unwillingness of leaders to become martyrs) it's timeless. The scene with the cannon is a gem. The "ultimate" weapon is shown as the ultimate (and expensive) waste; this could easily be the Crusader Artillery System. The tenderness between Chaplin and Goddard is a thing of beauty. Jack Oakie is fabulous as a Mussolini clone. The scenes between him and Chaplin are hilarious. (Watch the scene with the hot mustard and do some thinking.) The innuendo in the film is brilliant. Who but Chaplin would conceive of Tomainia (after "Ptomaine, poisonous and putrefying organic matter), the "Sons of the Double Cross" or Hynkel's first name, "Adenoid"? The entire backdrop with its "Thinkers of Tomorrow" and other absurdities modeled on the vanity of the Dictator is amazing; it captures the madness completely. The ballet with the globe is beautiful and astonishing. The music representing the ideals for the greedy and the humble is identical. The message: people are alike. As is the norm for Chaplin he did it in a way that was subtle; it's the theme of the Grail Knight descending from Wagner's Lohengrin. Hitler loved Wagner's music. Chaplin would have known that. It's his way of saying Wagner's music wasn't to blame for Hitler's madness. There's more but this should give an idea.

What nobody seeing the film for the first time can be prepared for however, is the way it ends. I wasn't. I saw a few of Chaplin's films as a student but had missed this one. I was floored. His statement about the nature of the people who make war is valid in any age. It always will be.

Watch it and then look closely at the events of the present.