Definitely one of World-Cinema's, but maybe not his best, in The Great Dictator, the celebrated and immensely gifted Tramp effortlessly de-glamourises himself to play the Tyrant......and with the unmistakable gait, toothbrush-moustache, solemn and scrawny-hat and those dreamy-eyes, takes us to the very heights of imagination and satire. We, mere-mortals witness with awe the mind of this totally off-the-scale genius.
Directed by Charles Chaplin and his half brother George Dryden, filming for the cinema began in September 1939, one week after the beginning of World War II and finished in a schedule of 6 months before being released in October, 1940.
This was perhaps Chaplin's first 'talking'-movie. That anybody could involve, express and engage so much in a 'silent-movie' devoid of the now-ubiquitous 'dialogues', stands testimony to this man's abilities; (see Modern-Times, City-lights, the Circus......).
It was the only major film of its period to bitterly satirize Adolf Hitler and Nazism (at a time when US was at peace with Nazi-Germany). Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, condemnation of Hitler, fascism, anti-semitism and the Nazis.
The opening 10 mins. of this 'comic'-cinema lays thread-bare the virulent nature of War, where a cannon-ball is shown 'following' the hapless un-named Private (played by Chaplin).
As the play progresses, Adenoid Hynkel (Hitler, played again by Chaplin), the barbaric ruler of Tomainia, is shown on a victory march in the main thoroughfare where the handless 'Venus-de-milo' gives him the Nazi-salute and so does Rodin's, The Thinker, who still sits, but now has his arm raised – Chaplin’s exceptionally satirical take on the totally suffocated state of artistic-expression and of free-speech in Nazi-Germany.
As the plot unfolds, the ruthless Hynkel arranges for a meeting with Benzino Napaloni (a portmanteau of Benito Mussolini and Napoleon Bonaparte), the dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin’s ability to treat rather intricate (and maybe serious) issues to exquisite satirical humour comes alive in a comical encounter of the two dictators at the barber-chamber, where one scrolls up his own chair in a bid to outdo the other, in order to command a more 'elevated’ or superior psychological-position, with both eventually reaching the ceiling of the chamber! The scene is really funny, and effortlessly exposes the insecurity and one-upmanship of the psychotic dictators out on a power-trip. (Mussolini, has been documented to be worried about his small stature, so much so, that he often used an elevated platform on top of the stage, on which he climbed onto before delivering a speech).
The film's most celebrated sequence is, of course, the ballet which Hynkel performs in his palatial office with a balloon globe (signifying the world), the music set to Wagner’s Lohengrin Overture (which is also used at the end of the film when the Jewish barber is making the victory speech in Hynkel's place). The method and steps of dance, Hynkel’s totally-cold but childish non-chalance, total self-involvement during the dance regime and the eventual bursting of the globe draw a cold, eerie parallel with the way the world was manhandled and mauled by Hitler’s imperialist designs, and also how his dream eventually went ka-put.
‘The Great Dictator’ ends with the barber (now ‘dictator’ of Tomainia, owing to an earlier mistaken identity-swap with Hynkel) delivering an address in front of a large audience and over the radio to the nation, following the Tomainian take-over of Osterlich (reference to Austria). This passionate pro-democracy speech is widely believed to be a personal message of Chaplin to the world to shun mindless-violence, racist tendencies and create a new boundaries-less world of peace, hope, freedom and rationality.
Trivia:
Chaplin’s motivation for making this work of art was from the escalating violence and repression of Jews by the Nazis throughout the late 1930s, the magnitude of which was conveyed to him personally by his European Jewish friends and fellow artists.
The film was well received at the time of its release, and was popular with the American public. It was also sent to Hitler, who apparently watched it twice, actually liking it!
Watch this for the sheer creativity of this man, the effortless acting, the impeccablly-comical satirical sequences, the eerie coincidence (remember, this was made before the WW2 started) of things to come and the sheer brilliance of Chaplin!
Li’l help from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator
No comments:
Post a Comment