The Great Dictator - Racism or Satire? You decide.

The road to the IMDB top-100 continued the other week with another Charlie Chaplain film, this time his landmark satire of Nazi Germany, The Great Dictator.  Made in 1940, just as the world was waking up to the terrors of what the Nazis were doing across Europe, the film is unashamed in its demonisation of them.  It was a film that at the time could be considered very brave to make.  The US was not at war with Germany, and such overt criticism of a head of state of a powerful westernised nation would surely have riled the corridors of power in the US.  Chaplain doesn't just satirise Hitler and the Nazis though, he outright mocks them through his own unique style of slapstick, giving all the characters stupid names, putting on a ridiculous German accent and effectively blowing raspberries in their faces.

One could argue that Chaplain almost goes too far here though.  Is the garbled fake German that he speaks still satire, or is it bordering on racism?  Chaplain plays two characters in The Great Dictator, and it is perhaps clear from his portrayal of those characters that he hold the Nazis in contempt rather than the German speaking diaspora.  Chaplain plays Hynkel - dictator of Tomania (Hitler) as well as a Jewish barber who is a hero from the First World War.  The barber is eloquent and well-spoken, Hynkel speaks in a garbled mash-up of fake German and semi-retarded English.  The barber is shown as resourceful and strong, Hynkel a devious man fearful of his supposed allies.  Chaplain's disdain for Hitler and what he has done to the German nation is clear.

The film is well-known for its final 15 minutes, in which the barber is mistaken for Hynkel and hauled in front of a Nazi rally to deliver a speech to the masses.  Rather than ranting about Jews, the barber gives a moving oration about the brotherhood of mankind, imploring the world to step back from the madness of war, recognise there is good in all, enough for all, and work together for a brighter future.  The cheering of the crowds as he finishes his speech can be read two ways, either there is hope for humanity as the crowd realise the truth in what he says; or that there is no hope as the baying masses blindly cheer whatever is put in front of them, be they peace-lover or war-monger.  However the film's final scene does leave us with a feeling of hope for the future of the German peoples and the world at large.

Undoubtedly The Great Dictator is a landmark piece of cinema.