The Great Dictator (1940)
- 8.5
- 2h 5min
- Comedy, War, Drama
- 1941-03-07 (USA)
Storyline
20 years after the end of WWI, in which the nation of Tomainia was on the losing side, Adenoid Hynkel has risen to power as the ruthless dictator of the country. He believes in a pure Aryan state and the decimation of the Jews. This situation is unknown to a simple Jewish Tomainian barber who has been hospitalized since a WWI battle. Upon his release the barber, who had been suffering from memory loss about the war, is shown the new persecuted life of the Jews by many living in the Jewish ghetto, including a washerwoman named Hannah with whom he begins a relationship. The barber is ultimately spared such persecution by Commander Schultz, whom he saved in that WWI battle. The lives of all Jews in Tomainia are eventually spared with a policy shift by Hynkel himself, who is doing so for ulterior motives. But those motives include a desire for world domination, starting with the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, which may be threatened by Benzino Napaloni, the dictator of neighboring ...
Plot Keywords
dictator, 1910s, 1930s, invented language, battlefield, bolt action rifle, soldier, world war one, chase, opening action scene, globe, good versus evil, dual role, man with no name, world war two, shotgun, slapstick comedy, year 1918, adolf hitler character, barber
Short Review
The first full-blown talkie from the biggest star of the silent era, complete with a message that Chaplin couldn't have sent more loudly or clearly.
