The Great Dictator
Release date: 1940-10-15
Votes: 3480
Genres: Comedy, War
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Reviews
wizzardss
In September 1939, six days after Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, Charlie Chaplin began filming his next feature. Drawing on the public perception of the similarities between himself and Adolf Hitler - not just his toothbrush moustache but also their upbringings - Chaplin sought to directly parody and attack the German führer and fascism. In _The Great Dictator_, Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin) rules Tomania and sets about his conquest of the world. In doing so, he persecutes Jewish people, including a former veteran of World War I who is now a barber (also Chaplin). Unsurprisingly, the film was a hit on release, resonating well with the anti-Nazi sentiment in both American and British public. Chaplin understood that delivering his political message was so important that he forewent his usual desire for a silent film in order to get his message across. Sound is used to great effect in _The Great Dictator_. By studying many of Hitler's speeches, Chaplin was able to create a ludicrous, yet believable, gibberish parody of the Nazi leader's oratory style. Of course, the physical comedy remains, typically reserved for the barber (who may or may not be Chaplin's silent hero, The Tramp). This combination of physical comedy and irreverent one liners together makes the film feel like a very early Carry On. While _The Great Dictator_ remains arguably Chaplin's best "talkie", it often feels like it is the end of Chaplin's era of classical pantomime. People being hit on the head with a saucepan comes across as a cheap laugh and it is often the verbal jokes that are the cleverest. Overall the comedy has not aged well. But _The Great Dictator_ was never designed for longevity. It was perfect propaganda for the Allies, released at a perfect point in the War. For that reason, The Great Dictator can only be judged in the context of its release.
Movie Recommendation
Modern Times1936-02-05A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..More...
The Kid1921-01-21A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.More...
City Lights1931-02-06A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.More...
The Gold Rush1925-07-13A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.More...
Sunset Boulevard1950-08-10A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.More...
The General1926-12-25During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.More...
The Circus1928-01-06Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.More...
Ikiru1952-10-09Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.More...
Night and Fog1959-04-27Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.More...
Limelight1952-10-23A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.More...
Monsieur Verdoux1947-09-26The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.More...
Way Out West1937-04-16Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.More...
Three Wishes for Cinderella1973-11-16Popelka, a resourceful and independent young girl, is a servant in her stepmother's house and confides in her closest friend the owl. When she comes across three magical acorns, she's granted a single wish for each one of them.More...
The Thief of Bagdad1940-02-19When Prince Ahmad is blinded and cast out of Bagdad by the nefarious Jaffar, he joins forces with the scrappy thief Abu to win back his royal place, as well as the heart of a beautiful princess.More...
The War of the Worlds1953-08-13The residents of a small town are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills, until they discover it is the first of many transport devices from Mars bringing an army of invaders invincible to any man-made weapon, even the atomic bomb.More...
Dangal2016-12-21Dangal is an extraordinary true story based on the life of Mahavir Singh and his two daughters, Geeta and Babita Phogat. The film traces the inspirational journey of a father who trains his daughters to become world class wrestlers.More...
The Philadelphia Story1940-12-05When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.More...
Citizen Kane1941-04-17Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.More...
Paths of Glory1957-10-25A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.More...
Night of the Living Dead1968-10-04A group of strangers trapped in a farmhouse find themselves fending off a horde of recently dead, flesh-eating ghouls.More...
Similar Movies
M*A*S*H
1970-02-18The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.The Tin Drum
1979-05-02Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.Pearl Harbor
2001-05-21The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the two ace fighter pilots become entangled in a love triangle with beautiful Naval nurse Evelyn Johnson. But the rivalry between the friends-turned-foes is immediately put on hold when they find themselves at the center of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.The Travelling Player...
1975-07-01This expansive Greek drama follows a troupe of theater actors as they perform around their country during World War II. While the production that they put on is entitled "Golfo the Shepherdess," the thespians end up echoing scenes from classic Greek tales in their own lives, as Elektra plots revenge on her mother for the death of her father, and seeks help from her brother, Orestes, a young anti-fascist rebel.Meet the Fockers
2004-12-22Hard-to-crack ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes and his wife Dina head for the warmer climes of Florida to meet the parents of their son-in-law-to-be, Greg Focker. Unlike their happily matched offspring, the future in-laws find themselves in a situation of opposites that definitely do not attract.Short Cuts
1993-10-01Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.Manhattan
1979-04-25Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.Annie Hall
1977-04-19New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.Shaun of the Dead
2004-04-09Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, above all, his local pub. This gentle routine is threatened when the dead return to life and make strenuous attempts to snack on ordinary Londoners.Murder She Said
1961-09-26Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own.Murder at the Gallop
1963-06-24Miss Marple and Mr. Stringer are witnesses to the death by heart attack of elderly, rich Mr. Enderby. Yet they have their doubts about what happened. The police don't believe them, thus leading Miss Marple to yet again investigate by herself.Murder Most Foul
1964-03-01A murderer is brought to court and only Miss Marple is unconvinced of his innocence. Once again she begins her own investigation.Murder Ahoy
1964-09-22During an annual board of trustees meeting, one of the trustees dies. Miss Marple thinks he’s been poisoned after finding a chemical on him. She sets off to investigate at the ship where he had just come from. The fourth and final film from the Miss Marple series starring Margaret Rutherford as the quirky amateur detective.The Mad Adventures of...
1973-10-17In this riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities, Victor Pivert, a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Slimane, an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assasins from Slimane's country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who's returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert's dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who's about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob.Monty Python and the ...
1975-04-03King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".Humor Risk
1921-12-01Harpo played the hero, a detective named Watson who "made his entrance in a high hat, sliding down a coal chute into the basement". Groucho played an "old movie" villain, who "sported a long moustache and was clad in black", while Chico was probably his "chuckling [Italian] henchman". Zeppo portrayed a playboy who was the owner of a nightclub in which most of the action took place, including "a cabaret, [which allowed] the inclusion of a dance number". The final shot showed Groucho "in ball and chain, trudging slowly off into the gloaming". Harpo, in a rare moment of romantic glory, gets the girl in the end. This film is lost.Les Lycéens, le Traît...
2019-09-16There is no descriptionMy Best Friend Anne F...
2021-10-07Based on the real-life friendship between Anne Frank and Hannah Goslar, from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to their harrowing reunion in a concentration camp.D.E.B.S.
2004-01-22The star of a team of teenage crime fighters falls for the alluring villainess she must bring to justice.Life of Brian
1979-08-17Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.