Hitler, the Nazi leader of Germany, was extremely sarcastic and sarcastic. Nikolai Babbel's film review points out that the film still has a deep meaning at the moment.
In his autobiography, Chaplin said, "I started getting warnings from United Productions, and someone advised the company to say... I may encounter censorship issues. In addition, our studio's Uk office was also worried about making anti-Hitler films, doubting whether the film could be released in Britain. More worryingly, the New York office sent a letter begging me not to make the film, declaring that it would never be shown in the UK or the US. ”
But Chaplin was reluctant to comply. He knew that "The Great Dictator" was worth making, and sure enough, it was a box office hit after its release, becoming the second-highest-grossing film in the United States in 1941. Looking back on this history today, the 80th anniversary of the film's release, the most surprising thing is Chaplin's foresight.
The great dictator is not only a hilarious comedy and a ruthless political proclamation, but also an accurate insight into the personal psychology of Hitler, the great dictator. Costa-Gavras, the elder of the Greek-American political film in France, said in the making of a documentary, "He was a visionary who saw a future that world leaders at the time could not see, when they were on Hitler's side." ”
Released in 1940, The Great Dictator was widely praised for his prophetic views.
What is even more wonderful is that Chaplin not only satirized Hitler with all his heart, but also mocked every dictator who followed Hitler on a march of militarism. Simon Louvish, author of Chaplin: the Tramp's Odyssey, said the film "had a great response at the time and will continue to resonate." If you want to see the fate of the tyrants of the 21st century, you can learn from this movie 80 years ago.
Serious information
When Chaplin filmed The Great Dictator, he had already scorned the German Nazis, who hated him. Although Chaplin was not Jewish, a German propaganda film accused him of being one of the "Jews outside Germany." But the U.S. media praised him as the "Moses of the 20th century" for funding the flight of thousands of Jewish refugees. Chaplin originally titled the film The Dictator. Louvesh said Chaplin began shooting with "a sense of mission." Some of his contemporaries, such as the famous Duo of Laurel and Hardy, only wanted to make funny movies to make money. But Chaplin was serious about what he wanted to say. The Great Dictator wasn't just a movie, it was something the reality of the time needed. ”
But Chaplin's filming of The Great Dictator was not just for humanitarian motives. He was also drawn to his mysterious connection with Hitler, who was born within the same week of April 1889. British comedian Tommy Handley recorded a funny song about German Fuehrer Hitler in 1939 called "What Is This Guy Who Looks Like Charlie Chaplin?" 》。
On their 50th birthday, The Spectator magazine published an editorial that explored the subject in more depth. The editorial said, "Ironically, seemingly by providence, the difference between the births of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler was no more than four days. Their similar dates of birth and the same moustache (which refers to the appearance of the tramp character in Chaplin's films, who deliberately used the moustache to obtain a weird image effect) may be predestined, revealing that they are all born smart. Admittedly, both of them are geniuses, and their existence reflects the same reality, that is, the plight of the "little people" in modern society, and both reflect in a distorted way, but Chaplin reflects the good side, and Hitler is the indescribable evil. ”
Chaplin plays the dictator of the Germania state in The Great Dictator, who looks like Hitler.
The Hungarian-born British producer Alexander Korda suggested that Chaplin make a big fuss by using his usual "tramp" screen image to Hitler's appearance, but it is clear that if the entire film was made chaplin's habitual tramp image to satirize a dictator, the audience would not be able to stand it, so Chaplin chose to play two roles. One role is Adenord Sinkel, the dictator of Demania; the other is the modest and honest nameless "Jewish barber" suffering from amnesia. The opening line reads, "It is purely coincidental that the dictator Sinkel and the Jewish barber look the same." ”
Inevitably, this coincidental similarity will have a dramatic effect that is mistaken for the other party, but this scene does not happen until the climax of the film. At this time, the barber was pulled hard onto the stage of a dictator who was supposed to be similar to him, Zinkel, who gave a five-minute sincere speech through the mouth of the barber, calling on human beings to live with dignity and fraternity, "We need machines, but we need humanity even more!" We need ingenuity, but more than that, we need kindness and kindness! This speech may be a snake to the plot, such as pulitzer prize film critic Roger Ebert, but it also elevates the realm of the entire film.
For most of the film, however, Chaplin is constantly switching between different story lines in which the two characters develop in parallel, which reminds us of the fact that there were both victims and perpetrators of Nazi persecution. In the Jewish community, a mild-mannered barber develops a relationship with Hannah, a rebellious laundry woman, played by Chaplin's then-wife, Paulette Godard. The scene in which the Nazi SA smashes tomatoes stolen from the grocery store at Hannah is the most infuriating portrayal of bullying violence. At this time, Sinkel (the film does not adopt the Führer as his title, but instead uses the contemptuous harmonic word the Phooey) in his palace fretting about how to outwit his rival Bencelo Napaloni (the incarnation of Mussolini).
Both story lines were so bold in their attacks on the enmity of the Nazis that most of their contemporaries' big-screen satires of the Nazis seemed weaker in comparison. German-American director Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 black comedy To Be or Not To Be avoided mentioning the word "Jewish." Chaplin, for his part, was completely unconcealed. In the Jewish community scene in The Great Dictator, it is highlighted that all the windows were painted with the capital letters "Jew" (Jew) by the Nazi SA. The barber tries to wipe off the paint and is spotted by Nazi commandos chasing him, a serial of a chase reminiscent of a clip of Buster Keaton's character in "Cop" being chased by a group of policemen.
But in the scene of The Great Dictator, after a round of hunting, the stormtroopers put a lasso around the barber's neck and hoisted him from a lamppost, and the barber was only rescued at the last moment. Although the process is thrilling, Chaplin still does not forget to be funny, and has been switching between funny scenes and thrilling chases with amazing speed. It is worth noting that these SA did not have a German accent for dialogue, or the British Accent of the high society of the time, and many Nazis who appeared in later Hollywood movies would speak in this accent. Most of the Germans in The Great Dictator speak the language.
The Italian dictator Naparoni, played by Jack Oak, and Sinkel compete with each other, and the behavior of the two is very childish and ridiculous.
In Sinkel's palace, the comedic atmosphere created is lighter and more comical. Chaplin drew a satirical caricature of a political farce in Europe at the time, based on the comic tradition of the comedy "Duck Soup" starring the comedians marx brothers. Naparoni, played by Jack Oakie, is like Chico Marx, an energetic Italian sage played by the Marx brothers. Nor does the film overlook the revelations of the dictator's crimes, with one plot pointing to Sinkel's whim ordering the execution of 3,000 protesters.
But Chaplin focused on the vanity, stupidity and naivety of the character. There is a one-time visual spoof in which a filing cabinet stands behind Sinkel's desk, but the cabinet does not have a drawer, but hides several mirrors, which Sinkel will look at from time to time. When Napaloni made a state visit from his country, Bacteria, mocking Mussolini's fascist movement like bacteria spreading, the two fascist leaders childishly competed with each other, scrambling to raise their chairs when they cut their hair and competing for the most photogenic position when taking pictures.
The film's message is that Sinkel is not a brilliant strategist or a strong leader, but just a minor with overinflated self-confidence. This is most vividly expressed in the very wonderful scene of Sinkel playing the inflatable earth dance and dreaming that he is the "king of the world". Sinkel is an insecure clown who bluffs, is accustomed to self-deception, obsessed with his own public image, treats his secretaries harshly, revels in extravagant residences, and changes his major policies in order to win more power. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, "The most interesting thing in the world for me is to laugh at the liars, and it's hard to find a liar bigger than Hitler." ”
Chaplin portrays Sinkel as an insecure clown, with particular emphasis on the comicality of his loud roar
Sinkel's anti-Semitic speech was actually fake German, a series of frantic roars of wordless speech, interspersed with the German word "Jew." This frenzied roar sounds terrifying, but lacks conviction and is motivated only by the desperate need for power to divert the attention of the Demaninian from his financial failure. His genteel assistant, Gabbish (Henry Daniel), an incarnation of Goebbels, said, "Violence against Jews may distract the public from noticing that they are hungry." ”
The film was accused of being an understatement of the criticism of Nazi atrocities. Chaplin responded in his autobiography, "If I had known the horrors of the German concentration camps, I wouldn't have made 'The Great Dictator' and wouldn't have made fun of the Nazis' murderous madness." But Chaplin wasn't just making fun of Hitler, just as another filmmaker, Mel Brooks, made fun of Hitler in his 1967 Film Producer, Chaplin also keenly pointed out the fragile self-esteem of male world leaders.
Look at dictators and quasi-dictators in any country in the world today, and you can see that these dictators all have childish personality traits that Chaplin ridicules. There is a scene in the film where the character Inuyasha Goering,alluding to German Marshal Goering,wearing so many medals in his uniform that when Sinkel awarded him the medal again, he had to twist Heli over and find a place to add a new medal to him. When Chaplin was making The Great Dictator, Hitler was at the peak of power, but Chaplin had realized that, like every dictator after Hitler, Hitler was full of evil and naïve and stupid.
According to German biographer Jürgen Trimborn, much of Chaplin's film was inspired by his viewing of Leni Riefenstahl's documentary Victory of the Will for Hitler at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While other audiences were stunned by the documentary, Chaplin burst into laughter at the absurd scenes of the documentary. He was persuaded to give up filming The Great Dictator, and feeling that the absurdity of Nazism had to be ridiculed back made him persist. In his autobiography, he wrote, "I am determined to keep going because Hitler must be ridiculed." ”