Sploich's Movie Review of The Great Dictator

Sploich Reviews The Great Dictator (1940)
Sploich - wrote on 03/06/11

I'm not a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin. That's not to say that I don't like his work, it's just that I've never really been that interested in it. He's made some great films but for the most part I haven't ended up watching a lot of them. This even having been said, I can still say that The Great Dictator is a film that would be very hard to top.

Charlie Chaplin plays two roles in this film: One as a Jewish barber and one as the dictator of an imagined pseudonym. The story follows both as they try to accomplish their own goals in 1930s Europe. Needless to say, the film is a thinly veiled satire on Hitler, the Third Reich and World War II in general. Specifically though, the film focuses on the plight of the European Jews at the time.

This is Chaplin's true masterpiece. Of all his films, this is by far the most important of his works with the most profound message. It's also a great showpiece for his acting, which is outstanding in both roles. He also directed and wrote this film and put his whole heart into making a passionate cry out in favor of the Jews being persecuted overseas. What's great about the film though is that it's not just a message film. It still stays true to Chaplin's work, giving a mixture of hilarious scenes with great dialogue and his signature slapstick.

After all that praise, I feel awkward pointing out that it is not a perfect film. When it's being comical, it's somewhat hit-or-miss. It's mostly hit though, and when a joke doesn't work it's not upsetting. When the film is more dramatic however, it does drag a bit. The movie is over two hours long, and feels it. I feel sort of bad saying negative things about this film though because what worked really did work well and I did really enjoy this film. The negatives are heavily outweighed by the positive.

The Great Dictator is a great film with a few flaws that can be overlooked. It's a deep film with a proud message and deserves pretty much every bit of praise it has already been given.