History Film / TheGreatDictator

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In his autobiography Chaplin, who'd resisted for ten years going over to talkies, revealed that his original concept of the film was to mix silent sequences featuring the Tramp with talking sequences featuring The Great Dictator.

The film is also a landmark for Chaplin himself - it was his first all-sound film, released over a decade after the rest of Hollywood transitioned to sound. (In the meantime Chaplin had stubbornly made ''Film/CityLights'' and ''Film/ModernTimes'' as silent films.) And although the barber is explicitly ''not'' the Tramp character, he nonetheless has the Tramp's physical appearance - baggy clothes, big shoes, cane, and that moustache - and thus this film marks the final time Chaplin would invoke some version of this character on screen.

Chaplin planned and shot the film in 1939-1940; France was conquered during the filming, which may have influenced the final tone of the film. While Chaplin understood from first-hand accounts how hostile the Third Reich was to Jews, at the time of filming, he was ignorant of the true nature of Hitler's Final Solution (which nobody could have known about, as the Final Solution wasn't formalized and implemented until 1942). After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Chaplin expressed some regret about the film, telling interviewers that he might not have made it if he'd known the whole story.

* AuthorTract / BalconySpeech / RousingSpeech: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbn-GjL6WLA "Look up, Hannah".]]

* TheEeyore: One of the Jewish men at the ghetto .

* GeneralFailure: Grand Marshall Herring.

* UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage: All the signs in the Jewish Ghetto are written in Esperanto.

* WorldWarOne: The beginning is set here.

'''''The Great Dictator''''' is a famous Creator/CharlieChaplin film about a [[AdolfHitler European dictator]] who [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything uses the Jewish people as a scapegoat]] for [[NaziGermany his country's]] problems and tries to ally himself with [[UsefulNotes/FascistItaly the republic of Bacteria]], since both wish to [[RippedFromTheHeadlines annex the country in between them]]. At the same time, a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran with a case of EasyAmnesia -- who happens to be [[IdenticalStranger a dead ringer for the dictator]] -- returns to his barbershop in the Jewish ghetto to find out things aren't quite as nice as they used to be...

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Commander Schultz]].

* TheTramp:
** The Jewish Barber is the last appearance of Chaplin's Tramp character, and spends much of his time silent. However, as noted in the {{Expy}} entry above, Chaplin and film historians tend ''not'' to consider this character to be the Tramp. See below.
** The simple fact that the Tramp speaks in this film has led some to regard him as a different character and ''Film/ModernTimes'' as the last appearance of the Tramp.

** It's also an example of TranslationYes.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In this case, no [[NaziGermany European politicians]] were harmed... [[WorldWarTwo yet]].
** This is even lampshaded at the beginning on the film.

** The rivalry between Hynkel and Benzino seems strange to modern audiences, who are only familiar with UsefulNotes/FascistItaly as an ineffectual ally of Nazi Germany -- the conflict between Hitler and Mussolini over the occupation of Austria is long forgotten.

Ironically, for all of the controversy surrounding it, ''The Great Dictator'' was not the first American anti-Nazi comedy film -- Chaplin was upstaged by Film/TheThreeStooges with the short film ''YouNaztySpy'' by nine months. Perhaps even more ironically, Hitler got a copy of the movie, and liked it enough to watch it twice.

The film is also a landmark for Chaplin himself - it was his first all-sound film, released over a decade after the rest of Hollywood transitioned to sound. (In the meantime Chaplin had stubbornly made ''Film/CityLights'' and ''Film/ModernTimes'' as silent films.)

* HistoryMarchesOn: What the world later learned about the concentration camps makes the scene where the barber is sent to a very mild-looking concentration camp rather jarring. Chaplin later said that if he'd understood just how evil the Nazis really were, he wouldn't have made the film.

* NoNameGiven: The main character is a barber whose name is never revealed.

* TakeThat: Chaplin's closing speech. For a man know for being silent, when Chaplin spoke, he had something to say.

** The Jewish Barber is the last appearance of Chaplin's Tramp character, and spends much of his time silent.

Ironically, for all of the controversy surrounding it, ''The Great Dictator'' was not the first American anti-Nazi comedy film -- Chaplin was upstaged by Film/TheThreeStooges with the short film ''YouNaztySpy'' by nine months.
Perhaps even more ironically, Hitler got a copy of the movie, and liked it enough to watch it twice.

'''''The Great Dictator''''' is a famous Creator/CharlieChaplin film about a [[AdolfHitler European dictator]] who [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything uses the Jewish people as a scapegoat]] for [[NaziGermany his country's]] problems and tries to ally himself with [[UsefulNotes/FascistItaly the republic of Bacteria]], since both wish to [[RippedFromTheHeadlines annex the country in between them]]. At the same time, a WorldWarI veteran with a case of EasyAmnesia -- who happens to be [[IdenticalStranger a dead ringer for the dictator]] -- returns to his barbershop in the Jewish ghetto to find out things aren't quite as nice as they used to be...

Chaplin planned and shot the film in 1939-1940; France was conquered during the filming, which may have influenced the final tone of the film. While Chaplin understood from first-hand accounts how hostile the Third Reich was to Jews, at the time of filming, he was ignorant of the true nature of Hitler's Final Solution (which nobody could have known about, as the Final Solution wasn't formalized and implemented until 1942). After WorldWarII, Chaplin expressed some regret about the film, telling interviewers that he might not have made it if he'd known the whole story.

''TheGreatDictator'' was (of course) banned in NaziGermany, although prints of the film still found their way into occupied Europe. According to an eyewitness, AdolfHitler obtained a copy of the film and watched it twice; when Chaplin found this out, he said that he would give anything to know what he thought of it. Britain had announced that they were going to ban the film while the film was in production (so that it wouldn't interfere with the country's appeasement policy with Nazi Germany), but when the film was released, Britain had entered the war against the Nazis, and the film couldn't be brought in fast enough; it ended up providing some badly needed laughs at a time where laughs were in short supply for Britain (and most of Europe).

For the SachaBaronCohen movie, see ''Film/TheDictator'', which is also a satire.

Perhaps even more ironically, Hitler got a copy of the movie, and liked it enough to watch it twice.

-->-- '''His Excellency Adenoid Hynkel''', Phooey of Greater Tomainia, Conqueror of Osterlich, Future Emperor of the World

* AdolphHitlarious

Ironically, for all of the controversy surrounding it, ''The Great Dictator'' was not the first American anti-Nazi comedy film -- Chaplin was upstaged by TheThreeStooges with the short film ''YouNaztySpy'' by nine months.

* HistoryMarchesOn: What the world later learned about the concentration camps and death camps makes the scene where the barber is sent to a very mild-looking concentration camp rather jarring, although the death camps weren't technically established until after the invasion of Russia, and the concentration camps varied greatly up to that point as well.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Chaplain's famous line about thinking too much and feeling too little. Recent research has revealed that in the brains of the majority of people with right-wing attitudes the emotional regions are far more developed than the rational ones.

* EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage: All the signs in the Jewish Ghetto are written in Esperanto.

''TheGreatDictator'' was (of course) banned in NaziGermany, although prints of the film still found their way into occupied Europe. According to an eyewitness, AdolfHitler obtained a copy of the film and watched it twice; when Chaplin found this out, he said that he would "give anything to know what he thought of it". Britain had announced that they were going to ban the film while the film was in production (so that it wouldn't interfere with the country's appeasement policy with Nazi Germany), but when the film was released, Britain had entered the war against the Nazis, and the film couldn't be brought in fast enough; it ended up providing some badly needed laughs at a time where laughs were in short supply for Britain (and most of Europe).