Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
- Nominated for 5 Oscars
- 7 wins & 6 nominations total
- Bacterian Ambassador
- (as Carter De Haven)
- Mr. Jaeckel
- (as Maurice Moscovich)
- Tomanian Commandant at Osterlich
- (as Robert O. Davis)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAdolf Hitler banned the film in Germany and all Nazi-occupied countries. Curiosity got the best of him, and he had a print brought in through Portugal. History records that he screened it twice, in private, but not his reaction. Charles Chaplin said, "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it." West Germany finally lifted the ban in 1958.
- Goofs(at around 35 mins) When the Barber is chased in the Ghetto streets by Stormtroopers, one California studio building can be seen in the upper right corner of the frame.
- Quotes
[last lines]
A Jewish Barber: 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. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite! Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hannah! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hannah! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow! Into the light of hope, into the future! The glorious future, that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!
Mr. Jaeckel: Hannah, did you hear that?
Hannah: Listen...
- Crazy creditsThe film is obviously a satire on Adolf Hitler, represented by Adenoid Hynkel, and its story is based on Hynkel looking exactly like "a Jewish barber": both are played by Charles Chaplin. But it begins with a notice: "Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely co-incidental".
- Alternate versionsIn Italy, all the scenes that involved Napaloni's wife were cut from the movie to respect Benito Mussolini's widow, Rachele. The complete version wasn't seen until 2002.
- ConnectionsEdited into Amérique, notre histoire (2006)
- SoundtracksHungarian Dance No. 5
(uncredited)
Written by Johannes Brahms
Played on the radio during the shaving scene
If rumours are to be believed, Hitler had him placed at the top of his death list after this film's release – now that's street cred. We first see Adenoid Hynkel addressing the German (Tomanian) nation, giving a speech that involves much arm-saluting, nonsense English that makes use of the phrase "sour kraut" and his more embittered rages descending into coughing fits. "His excellency has just referred to the Jewish people", informs an announcer after a rage-filled moment that causes microphones to bend and quiver in fear. His first German-language dictates to his minister of war (Herring) involve "banana" and "cheeseuncrackerz". Look out too for instructions to his Minister of Interiors, Garbitsch.
I've never really gotten into Charlie (always credited as Charles) Chaplin, as I find his innocent sentimentality a little hard to get to grips with in today's society. W.C.Fields, and, to an extent, Harold Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy can still entertain, as they have something of the attitude, or edge, that Chaplin lacks. Ironically, it's modern times that mean we now find it hard to fully appreciate Modern Times. However, dialogue and a harsher undercurrent – including a Jewish barber (Chaplin, again) being hung from a lamppost mean that even today The Great Dictator is relevant.
There are some nice silly jokes, such as the barber, confronted by a Stormtrooper, being told: "and I thought you were an Arian". "Well, I'm a veget – arian", replies Chaplin, trying to fit in. Many jokes – such as Hynkel making a long speech and his secretary typing up just a couple of words; then saying just a couple of words only for her to translate it into paragraphs – were originated here and have been repeated countless times in other places. Some of the most amusing slapstick is when Hynkel meets fellow dictator Mussolini (Napaloni), and tries to impress him by having the greater psychological perspective in all their meetings. In a gag much honoured by Bugs Bunny, the two crank themselves up to ever-greater heights on barber's chairs.
Elsewhere, the film also has a grand scale, with ceilings on sets and news reports propelling the narrative – you know, the sort of thing Citizen Kane was so highly praised for the following year. If there's a fault with this film then it's not so much with the sentimental, whiter-than-white Jewish population, but with Chaplin's interpretation of Hynkel. Although he gets all the best jokes and scenes, he's simply too likable to really convey the threat Chaplin was trying to stop. Nevertheless, this is forgotten as the ending gives us the Jewish barber taking Hynkel's place, and Chaplin making an impassioned, three-minute speech in the name of freedom.
Charles Chaplin played two roles in this movie, wrote, directed, produced and, uncredited, composed original music for it. To claim it changed the world is an overstatement. America still had a good opinion of Hitler at the time, and, after it was released... they still had a good opinion of Hitler. It was still some time before they would even enter the second world war, and with the final speech being adopted for Communist pamphlets in England, this only caused Chaplin troubles when it came to the McCarthy witch trials. There's a sense that Chaplin isn't the master in the field of talkies, and that his use of mime was beginning to date. History was overtaking him, but The Great Dictator still stands as one of the most personal, and risk-taking films ever put on celluloid.
Postscript, April 2012: I've since watched all of Chaplin's features and every short. So, I was talking rubbish when I said twelve years ago that he didn't have modern appeal. Sorry about that. However, I stand by most of the review, even if "Chaplin on Hitler's death list" is a "fact" I've only read in Trivial Pursuits. Oh, look out for the documentary that's included on the DVD - "The Tramp and the Dictator" - well worth seeing, as well as Chaplin's extensive thoughts on this film and its aftermath in his 1964 autobiography.
- The_Movie_Cat
- Sep 1, 2000
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Great Dictator
- Filming locations
- Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles, California, USA(duck hunt - war sequences)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $972,212
- Runtime2 hours 5 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1