JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

DonAlberto Do it all yourself and do it all right. This is what Charlie Chaplin does in this brilliant film. He's the producer, star, scriptwriter and director of The Great Dictator, his firs talkie (sound movie). And one can't help but wondering if the art of this British genius was somewhat affected by the arrival of sound, by the changes that it brought about both for actors and audiences. Judging by how good the film is, I'd say that it didn't.A.Hynkel is the dictator and absolute ruler of Tomaine. This role and the one of a Jewish barber are both played by Chaplin. Although the picture is aimed at criticizing Germany and fascism, the first scenes are used to show us Chalie Chaplin's character fighting in the Great War. Comic scenes are intertwined with satire-driven ones, which only increases the difficulty to know where this masterpiece stands. Its legendary status and reputation are undeniable but.....Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Does it stand alone on a genre of its own? I guess that's up to the viewers. I can only say I see no easy way out of that dilemma, as we have a little bit of everything in the film. realistic depiction of Jews and their struggles, critique of Hitler, Mussolini and fascism through humour. There's one poignant speech at the end of the film that serves in a double purpose: to close the movie in a spectacular fashion and to give us something to cheer us up, something to remember and hold on to in moments of despair.

david-sarkies This is probably the film that Chaplin is best known for, even though it isn't actually one of the films from the repertoire of silent classics. In a way it is not so much a criticism of Fascism in Europe but rather a criticism of US isolationism. However, it doesn't necessarily seem to be that as Chaplin seems to be making a mockery of the fascist dictators in Europe as opposed to actually confronting his viewers with the reality of the situation, and while in a sense we may, at least at this time, consider Hitler to be something of a joke, the reality of the horrors weren't going to come to the fore until much later.The film beings in World War I, where a Jewish barber is fighting on the Front Lines, and then ends up not only saving a pilot, but after crashing the plane ending up in hospital with amnesia. Twenty years later we have him leave the hospital and return to the ghetto to see that in one sense nothing has changed, but in another sense quite a lot has changed. The thing is that the Jews up to that time have always lived in Ghettos, and have always suffered persecution under the hands to those around them, however things seemed to be getting a lot worse.The Great Dictator cuts between Hynkle, who is played by Chaplin, and the Barber, who is also played by Chaplin. The Hynkle scenes are in a sense a lot of slapstick, in a way that politicians are mocked. It is similar with the barber scenes, yet Chaplin seems to be trying to challenge us with the problems that the Jews were living under at the time, and the nature of extreme racism. However, he also seemed to be trying to open our eyes to the fact that this wasn't just the case in Germany, but everywhere. The thing was that nobody particularly cared about the Jews, which is why Hitler was able to get away with what he did, though we must remember that he did work to cover the holocaust up somewhat.It isn't a silent film though, which sort confronted me at least since Chaplin was one of the masters of the silent era. However, I doubt it would have worked as one. What is interesting though are the speeches. Obviously there is the great speech that is delivered at the end, which is in effect let's stop being mean to each other and start to learn to actually get along. We also have Hynkle's speeches which are basically gibberish. At first I thought he may have been just mocking Hitler, but there is also that essence with the idea that it is not the content that actually matters, but the energy with which it is delivered. In a way Hitler, like many other populist politicians, are able to get people on side simply by telling them what they want to hear. Also, one could even suggest that the content could be drastically changed, but as long as the energy that delivered the original speech is replicated, then people will simply continue to follow along blindly, which is why the barber was able to get away with what he did.

tom-durham What is very clear is that Charlie Chaplain is the master of silent films and slapstick humour. Unfortunately, this is not a silent film.Near the beginning there is a ~5-10 minute long 'joke' of a speech in garbled German-English words. I couldn't even make out what he is saying, the German-English jokes were not at all obvious, and so it was not funny and quite boring. If you manage to keep watching past this, you're doing well, it gets better but not by much.The small amount of classic charlie chaplain slapstick was mostly good and I laughed a few times at that, but unfortunately between the slapstick is tedious, unexciting dialogue.Maybe what Charlie Chaplain did was ground breaking at the time. Today, it fails to capture interest long enough to enjoy the comedic elements.

Philip Gavrilos The Great Dictator was by far the most direct cinematic manifestation of Chaplin's politics, which he had been exploring for decades in his silent comedies, but had been sharpened by his experiences touring the world in the early 1930s. His previous feature, Modern Times (1936), was his most "political" film to date, and in that masterpiece he demonstrated how fluidly he could merge the political and the comical, turning out a "message movie" that went down smoothly. The same is true for much of The Great Dictator, which is a frequently hilarious film that boldly uses caricature and satire to ridicule the leading despots of the early 20th century. Even many years later than it's first appearance on the screen this movie is more updated than ever! The totalitarianism and alienation of people are now a daily reality. Like their release of Modern Times last fall, Criterion has done fantastic work with The Great Dictator, giving us a new 2K high-definition transfer taken from a combination of a 35mm fine-grain master positive and a 35mm duplicate negative. Extensive digital restoration has removed virtually all signs of age and damage without losing the image's grain structure and film like appearance. All in all, there are no complains here, or even minor quibbles, for that matter. The image is sharp, well-detailed, and beautifully rendered in gray scale, with good black levels and excellent contrast. The monaural soundtrack, transferred at 24-bit from the sound negative and digitally restored, likewise gives the film a new lease on life. There are no cracks, pops, or ambient hiss, and the dialogue and sound effects are clear and precise.