Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator (DVD)

Everybody knows Charlie Chaplin, his Tramp with the oversized trousers, the tight jacket, black bowler hat and bamboo walking cane is one of the icons of the cinema of the 20th century, but how many people, especially the young ones, have actually seen one of his films? Chaplin’s filmography lists 80 films, The Great Dictator (1940) was his first all-talking, all-sound film, his most highly praised and commercially his most successful. Here Chaplin ...
...Hynkel, the fascist dictator of Tomania, who are the spitting images of each other; because of misunderstandings they are taken for each other and the Jewish barber has to deliver a political speech in Hynkel’s place. This is the plot in a nutshell but what do we understand from these few lines? Nothing, I’m afraid. The film begins during WW1, an unnamed Jewish barber, a private in the army of the fictional nation of Tomania, rescues an officer ...

MALU 26.07.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator (DVD)

Charlie Chaplin is probably the most well known movie actor ever, who progressed from his ten to fifteen minute short films, such as 'The Champion' (1915), to larger works such as 'Modern Times' (1936) and this, 'The Great Dictator' (1940). The film follows two seperate storylines. The first is of the Dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin), who is planning to conquer the world; while the other is about the Dictator's double, a Jewish barber ...
...up to find that he has to live in the ghetto and that Hynkel's soldiers prowl the streets. Meanwhile, Hynkel has decided to go one further than his competetive 'friend' Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria, by invading Bacteria. The film is obviously a parody of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis with Napaloni representing Mussolini. Of course, in 1940, America had yet to enter WWII (they did so in 1941 due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), and at the ...

jbsabbath 19.01.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator (DVD)