My head wanted to explode yesterday as I watched the dictator of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak in Columbia University. I am still aghast that this mad man was allowed to step on our soil and spurt out his religious and anti-American rhetoric in one of our country’s finest universities. As I watched this mad man speak I thought about Charlie Chaplin’s first talkie, “The Great Dictator
“The Great Dictator” released in 1940, a year before we entered the war, was a daring move for Chaplin. This movie bitterly and boldly satirizes Nazis and Adolf Hitler, and ends with a sober and blatant political plea to defy fascism. When this movie was released the U.S. was at peace with Nazi Germany. I would have to guess that around this time the rumors of the atrocities that were occurring in Nazi Germany were rampant. But the U.S. couldn’t or wouldn’t believe such horrors could happen in a 20th century world. How wrong we were.
Chaplin went full speed ahead with his film. The movie was daring enough to show Hitler for what he was, a tyrant, whose main goal was world domination. Chaplin saw Hitler and his cronies for who they were, “machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts.” The world wanted to wish this mad man away. As if, we ignore him, he’d go away. Chaplin knew differently. He wanted the world to know what was going on and what would happen if we did nothing about it. The movie condemns Nazism, fascism, and Hitler quite clearly. Chaplin knew he was staring evil in the face and couldn’t stand there and do nothing. He instead chose to use his art and sent a strong message to the world.
In the movie, “The Great Dictator,” Chaplin plays an unnamed private in the army of a fictional nation named Tomania. He gets hurt and loses his memory while trying to valiantly rescue another officer named Schultz. He spends the next 20 years in a hospital totally oblivious to the changes that have taken place in Tomania. While he slept a “great dictator,” has risen Arenoid Hynkel also played by Chaplin in a double role. The great dictator has taken to persecuting and killing off Jews with the help of ministers Garbitsch (Henry Daniell) and Herring (Billy Gilbert).
Upon returning to his barbershop, the private still unaware of the political situation tries to move on with life as usual, but is taken by surprise when the storm troopers smash the windows to his shop. In the chaos of the streets, he bumps into a friend Hannah, which he eventually falls in love with (Paulette Goddard). Hannah is also a Jew and lives in the Jewish Ghetto. Hannah and the Jewish barber must fight for their lives.
In one of their run-ins with the storm troopers, Schultz, the officer the barber rescued, recognizes him and orders the troopers to let the Jewish barber and Hannah alone. Meanwhile Hynkel the great dictator has lessened the torture of the Jews in hopes of getting some financing from a Jewish financier. Hynkel is obsessed with world domination and he needs money to do it, even if it means getting it from a Jew. The most memorable scene is the haunting ballet dance between the power-mad dictator and a balloon globe in his palatial office. The Jewish financier refuses to finance the mad man’s dreams of world domination. The tyrant resumes his atrocities against the Jews only now the mayhem is worse.
Schultz refused to do nothing while evil danced all around him. He voices his objections and Hynkel orders him and the Jewish Barber be sent to a concentration camp. Hynkel encounters opposition by Benzino Naploni (aka Benito Mussolini) played by Jack Oakie. Napoloni is another despot who also wants world domination. In a very funny scene, these two crazies meet and try to negotiate world domination. The food fight is hilarious!
Schultz and the barber escape the camp wearing army uniforms. Border guards have mistaken the barber for Hynkel, who look identical. Hynkel was on a fishing trip that day and was mistaken for the barber and is arrested by his very own soldiers. The barber who is now mistaken for the great dictator is scheduled to give a victory speech. Garbitsch introduces the great dictator and it is here when Chaplin makes his plea to the world.
Although this movie is funny, Chaplin was quite serious about his message. In his autobiography he stated that had he really known about the extent or true horrors of the Nazis he would not have been able to make light of it. Are we in a sleep state and ignoring a mad man in hopes that he will disappear? Are we aware of the political changes around us, and how these changes can greatly affect us all? What would Charlie Chaplin have to say today? I think he’d say Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler and if he goes ignored we will all pay for it. In this instance “ignorance is not bliss.”
2 Responses to “When Hollywood Was Not Silent”
I have to commend you on your write-up. I’m inclined to agree with you, and your integration of The Great Dictator is apt and well done. Only yesterday I was listening to Chaplin’s final speech because it’s one of the few times I’d call cinema truly inspiring. I think while many are critical of the current government, there is a lack of social or moral conscious for those outside of the United States, especially when we’re talking about genocide or government corruption and dictatorships. We need more artists like Chaplin, who are willing to risk all they have for their message… because as small as it may be, it will mark and inspire people to go out and make a difference.
As Chaplin’s barber makes his plea, film trascends it’s medium and going against the general concepts of old cinema, we are reminded of the real world, taken out of the film.
Thank you Justine. It took a lot guts on Chaplin’s part to do this. And I suppose that is what is missing today, guts. I find it interesting for Chaplin to have sent such a strong message with his first “talkie.” Everyone heard the sound of his voice for the first time in a powerful way!
Thanks again!