The Great Dictator (1940) At least one on line news outlet took notice of Turner Classic Movies running fascism themed movies on Trump's inauguration day......(heh, heh, heh, heh.....)
TCM claims the timing was unintentional and we're...uh....willing to take their word for it. Sort of.
Either way, we salute them. Especially with the showing of this film, Charles Chaplin's legendary, controversial lampoon of Adolf Hitler. (as well as his first non-silent, all talking sound film)
This movie's essential viewing for all lovers of cinema....particularly Trump voters about to find out that a deal with the devil always comes with consequences.
"The Great Dictator" still resonates and packs a punch with its careening ride through classic slapstick, gut punching political satire and finally a stirring call for humanity to overcome darkness.
Yes, it's actually all these things at once, so any viewer needs to prepare themselves for the film's whiplash turns from one trope to another. No film better displays the essence of Charlie Chaplin's artistic genius - you'll laugh out loud one minute, choke up the next and come close to standing up to cheer at the end.
We begin in the thick of 1918 World War I. Chaplin appears as an unlikely recruit of Tomania (a.k.a. Germany) a Jewish barber who accidentally wreaks more destruction to his own side than the allies. And of course, the sight gags and Chaplin's complete mastery of physical comedy are brilliant to behold.
Some 20 years later, Tomania's ruled under the clumsy thumb of 'Der Phooey' Adenoid Hynkel (guess who), a strutting, gibberish spewing idiot who babbles endlessly to adoring crowds. A clown to be sure, but there nothing clownish about Hynkel's stormtroopers terrorizing the Jewish neighborhood where the barber's tried to resume a peaceful life.
But there's no peace in the dictatorship of Hynkel, his goons and two primary minions.....the bloviating obese War Minister Herring (a.k.a. Hermann Goring, played by Billy Gilbert) and sinister Propaganda Minister Garbitch (a.k.a. Joseph Goebbels, a.k.a. Trump's Stephen Miller, a wonderful dry deadpan performance by veteran reptilian villain Henry Daniell)
Hynkel's dreams of domination appear in what movie buffs remember as the film's signature sequence.....the dictator's elegant ballet with a balloon of a world globe.....(and with a prescient, perfect finish....)
Things get even crazier with the arrival of Hynkel rival Benzino Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria (a.k.a. Benito Mussolini, played with all stops out by rotund comic Jack Oakie).
Throughout the film, Chaplin's genius skill at visual comedy remains unmatched and his unmerciful skewering of Hitler somehow provokes both laughs and disgust all at the same time. No one had seen anything like this before.......(and we doubt if any of today's filmmakers have enough bravery and balls to take on Trump in the same way)
Since Chaplin plays both Hynkel and the Jewish barber, you can probably see Hynkel's ironic fate coming from a mile away, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying.....
By the time the film was on the verge of release, it became all too apparent to Chaplin that Hitler and his Nazi hordes were no laughing matter. Chaplin then resorted to his boldest move, finishing the film with an incredible, meticulously crafted call for peace, humanity, decency and a rejection of hate and brutality.
Let's put it this way.......it's the kind of speech we can only wish the next 2028 Democratic Presidential will make over and over again......a speech worthy of lifting us out of the hellish abyss that American voters plunged us into when they flushed away democracy to elevate their very own 'Der Phooey'.
Everyone should see this one-of-a-kind film....5 stars (*****).
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