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“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone.”
Forrest Miller, Conan Neutron, J. Andrew World and Kristina Oakes are joined by fellow show host, recurring guest and cinephile Ron Purtee to talk about this Chaplin classic! The Great Dictator.
A remarkable work of satire that plays as a regular comedy as well as “ripped from the headlines” commentary, what better way to takedown the greatest most serious threat of the time then with a cutting farce that makes him a laughing stock?
Astounding that this is the first time that you hear Chaplin speak in film. Doubly so that the film ends I’m one of the greatest appeals to humanistic engagement put in the movies. Chaplin is a Jewish barber who also happens to look just like the ascending fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel, spouter of anti-semitism and hate.
Hilarity ensues.
All the physical comedy one would expect from a Chaplin movie are here and in full force, the action showing you the comedy instead of telling you about it.
In writing about Hitler and Mussolini, Jung diagnosed the cult of Wotan and Hitler’s role as a Myth and Shaman, channeling the German Unconcious, while Mussolini was just a man. A human still.
In both cases, Charlie Chaplin absolutely rips apart two of the most virulent and evil dictators of the 20th Century and gets to the heart of why they were both so evil but also so ripe for 80 years of comedy mined from WW2.
When we see Charlie Chaplin’s Adenoid Hynkel, he is transported through a non-stop series of coughs, snorts, gestures, and movements while we are mediated through a translator explaining the very silly Faux-Nazi speech.
After giving us the Full Phooey/Fuhrer treatment, Hynkl asks his Propaganda Minister Herr Garbitsch in a quiet voice “how was my speech?” And Garbitsch says “I thought your reference to the Jews might have been a bit more violent.”
The Great Dictator was written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1939, at a time when WW2 wasn’t quite underway yet, but the shadow of World Conflict loomed large over everything as Hitler moved across Europe. It was his first “talkie” after 25 years of doing silent film.
Using physical comedy and pitch-perfect (ironic for a silent comedian) satire, Charlie Chaplin deconstructed the carefully staged and calibrated hyper-propagandized Third Reich
Some of the physical comedy sequences, such as one where Hynkl dances with a world-shaped balloon to signify his dream of world domination.. before accidentally popping it and jumping are actually beautiful.. but also harken to/parody the Leni Riefenstahl style symbolic cinema of Nazi Germany.
Of course, Hitler continues to fascinate us, but the Great Dictator also transcends Nazi Germany.
Chaplin is skewering things, like the silly ways Dictators try to flex their power, the ways they distract a broken and suffering country using hate and war.. the constantly telegraphed propaganda.
These things are not just from the playbook of Hitler and Mussolini but dictators around the world.
Charlie Chaplin also plays a Jewish Barber, affected by the constant torment of Stormtroopers, especially whenever Hynkl is having trouble running the country
The Jewish Barber, Chaplin’s Little Tramp character, has lost his memory from World War I and gets out of years in the hospital to a country run by the ruthless antisemitic dictator Hinky
The Jewish Barber happens to look alot like Hynkl, and obviously you’re waiting for the “Prince and the Pauper” bit
We also get a parody of Mussolini, Benzino Napaloni, the Diggaditchie of Bacteria, and some of the funniest bits are Hynkl and Napaloni trying to one-up each other by showing their superiority which ends with a giant food fight in Hynkl’s Palace
The final speech is iconic, it gets referenced all the time, and takes us out of the “comedy” and is a beautiful statement of Charlie Chaplin’s beliefs on the eve of World War II.
Forrest, J. Andrew World, Conan Neutron, Kristina Oakes and Ron Purtee talk about Charlie Chaplin’s the Great Dictator #charliechaplin #chaplin #thegreatdictator #worldwar2 #talkies #silentfilm
Ron Purtee can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@ImUncleRon or @ ImUncleRon on social media.
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