Good evening and happy Election Day, dear readers! Welcome back to I’d Like to Blank the Academy, where we will attempt to quench your insatiable thirst for politics with this week’s selection: The Great Dictator. While it doesn’t feature elections per se, the themes of fighting against antisemitism and dictatorial tendencies are unfortunately still very relevant. Our pal Charlie is here to make sure you still have a good time though, so remember: if you’re in line to read ILTBTA, stay in line!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: Basically everyone has heard of Charlie Chaplin, but beyond the odd clip or photo here and there, I hadn’t actually seen anything with him until we watched this the first time. I remember enjoying it, but it was late at night during the pandemic, so I’m excited to see how his GOAT status holds up!
Tyler: This is what I wrote in The Spreadsheet after we watched this the first time: “Not a subtle political satire in any sense of the word, but given when it was released I think that makes it even more intelligent and courageous (not to mention funny).” Time to see if Present Tyler agrees with Past Tyler!
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
On the Western Front of a Great War in 1918, we meet a Jewish Barber1 fighting for “Tomainia”. He’s a real Amelia Bedelia kind of dude, good-naturedly bumbling his way through the battlefield: failing to fire a giant missile from a gun named Big Bertha, ending up on the enemy side of the trenches, and managing to rescue a Tomainian pilot! the Barber and the injured Commander Schultz engage in some flight-based shenanigans trying to make their way back to Tomainia. They crash and survive, trying to get documents to a General Smelaful2, but learn that Tomainia has surrendered. The Barber is taken to a hospital, suffering from memory loss from the crash.
A series of newspaper front pages take us forward 20 years and through the rise of Adenoid Hynkel, who has a strong disdain for the Jews (to put it mildly) and desires to bring Tomainia back to her former glory. (He also looks suspiciously like the Barber, but we’re assured that’s merely a coincidence.) In addition to being a fascist, ruthless dictator, Hynkel is an absolute buffoon. He’s got advisors who are equal parts bloodthirsty and preposterous. He himself thinks that arrests-per-day being at 5 to 10… thousand is too generous, and he cannot be bothered with complaints as to the quality of the bread… sorry, mistyped that, that’s the quality of the sawdust in the bread. Cool guy!
Ellen: There are a lot of quick jokes and visual gags that really convey Hynkel’s absurdity that I’m not doing a great job of capturing here.
Tyler: It’s not your fault: physical comedy is by definition better seen than read! For all of those bits that we were chuckling at, I can very easily imagine people in 1940 losing their shit over them.
Meanwhile in the Jewish ghetto, the Barber returns! Believing it’s only been a few weeks, he’s bewildered by the Haunted Mansion level of cobwebs in his shop, and is even more surprised by stormtroopers painting the word Jew on his window. They also steal vegetables and pelt Hannah, the Barber’s pretty neighbor, with tomatoes when she objects. A scuffle ensues, resulting in the stormtroopers attempting to hang the Barber from a lightpost! Commander Schultz arrives and puts a stop to it, recognizing his old war buddy, despite the fact that he “always thought of [him] as an Aryan,” to which the Barber replies “I’m a vegetarian?” Everyone disperses, and Hannah, having finally gotten to resist these goons, is exhilarated.
Ellen: The contrast of how the Barber reacted to the stormtroopers versus everyone else served as a really illuminating example of how much conditions can degrade when it’s all normalized.
Tyler: Agreed. And from a writing perspective, the amnesia angle is also a clever way to make the protagonist our audience stand-in who doesn't know anything.
Hynkel, encouraged by his generals and being a greedy jerkface, wants to invade neighboring Osterlich in a show of power, but needs funds to do so. He decides to lay off persecution of the Jews to attempt to convince the banker Hermann Epstein and celebrates his impending world takeover with a little dance (see gif below). The subsequent calm in the ghetto allows Hannah and the Barber to flirt! Their eventual date, which is highly anticipated by most of the neighborhood, is interrupted by a broadcast Hynkel speech spouting his renewed fury at the Jewish people (unbeknownst to them, it’s because his loan has been denied). Commander Schultz is sent to a concentration camp for pushing back against the persecution, and Hannah and her neighbors end up hiding him in the cellar.
Tyler: I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but I found the entire scene of Hynkel dancing around with the globe balloon to be so oddly beautiful yet still humorous.
While hiding, Schultz insists that the only way forward is to assassinate Hynkel in a suicide plot, but it’ll have to be one of the neighbors, because his own face is too well known. He hides a coin in an individual pudding to select the unlucky man, but Hannah puts a stop to the insanity. Unfortunately, stormtroopers invade and find both Schultz and the Barber, and they’re sent to a concentration camp. The rest of the neighbors flee to a vineyard3 in Osterlich.
Hynkel has other problems: the definitely-not-Italian dictator Benzino Napaloni has set troops at the Osterlich border, jeopardizing Hynkel’s own plans to invade. At a peace summit of sorts, Hynkel’s advisors basically plan to neg Napaloni into acceding, but he’s so boisterous he thwarts their psychological attacks (such as they are). Through a food fight and the consumption of an outrageous amount of hot mustard, the two idiots sign a treaty.
Schultz and The Barber escape from the concentration camp in stolen uniforms just as the invasion of Osterlich is set to begin. Troops are already harassing Hannah and her family! The two men attempt to go unnoticed, but no dice: they’re taken to the front of the victory parade to address the crowd, because the real Hynkel has been bonked on the head while wearing civilian clothes, so the uniformed Barber is it! Impersonating Hynkel, the Barber announces a change of heart and gives an impassioned speech for brotherhood and goodwill, encouraging soldiers to fight for liberty, and unite the people in the name of democracy.
Ellen: From a movie that hadn’t built up as much goodwill with me, I might have been annoyed that no one noticed Hynkel and The Barber looked alike until the latter was in uniform. But the rest of the movie has so much absurdity woven in that I’m like “sure that tracks!”
Tyler: The speech at the end is slightly jarring in its seriousness, with Chaplin dropping his characters and speaking directly into the camera in what sadly became an incredibly prescient plea for decency.
Our final shot sees Hannah hearing the speech on the radio. She recognizes the voice of the Barber, turns toward the rising sunlight and her compatriots, and says, “Listen.”
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … democracy!
Make sure you vote so we can keep it! What, do you want a real-life Hynkel? Get outta here with that.
That’s it! That’s the Intermission!
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
The Great Dictator’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
Charlie Chaplin spent two years working on the The Great Dictator’s script, with filming beginning in September 1939, just six days after Great Britain declared war on Germany. The film was a departure from silent movies for Chaplin, who despite his international fame from various silent movies, chose to use spoken dialogue in The Great Dictator after recognizing it as a better way to deliver the film’s message.
Ellen: Given that speaking is famously not his forte, it’s even more impressive to me that some of his comedic lines are delivered with such levity and unique intonations that I was reminded of Robin Williams, particularly as Genie.
Making a comedy film satirizing Hitler was seen as extremely controversial at the time, but Chaplin’s financial independence (due to his personal wealth from his earlier films) allowed him to take such a risk. (One estimate put Chaplin’s financial contributions to the film production at $1.5 million, equivalent to about $33 million today.) The resemblances between Chaplin and Hitler were also widely noted: they were born just four days apart, had both risen from poverty to worldwide prominence, and of course sported the same mustache style.
After being annoyed by his comedy style and popularity following a 1931 trip to Berlin, the Nazis released a book that described Chaplin as “a disgusting Jewish acrobat” (never mind that Chaplin wasn’t Jewish). A close friend of Chaplin sent him the book, and always believed that Chaplin made The Great Dictator as retaliation.
This one’s for our linguistics fans out there (you know who you are): some of the shop signs in the Ghetto were written in Esperanto, an international language despised by Hitler because the founder was a Polish Jew.
The Great Dictator’s score was written and composed by Meredith Wilson, who was later known as the writer and composer of the Broadway play The Music Man. Wilson said this about Chaplin’s involvement in the film’s music:
I've seen [Chaplin] take a soundtrack and cut it all up and paste it back together and come up with some of the dangdest effects you ever heard—effects a composer would never think of. Don't kid yourself about that one. He would have been great at anything—music, law, ballet dancing, or painting—house, sign, or portrait. I got the screen credit for The Great Dictator music score, but the best parts of it were all Chaplin's ideas, like using the Lohengrin "Prelude" in the famous balloon-dance scene.
Wilson was also tasked with re-recording Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 with a full studio orchestra to match the actions of the Barber in the scene in which he shaves a customer. Wilson initially planned to do it painstakingly, eight measures or less at a time, but after a suggestion from Chaplin to do it once all the way through, nailed it enough that that one and only take was what made it into the film.
There are varying accounts of whether or not Hitler ever viewed the film, though Chaplin did arrange for a copy to be sent to him.
In his 1964 autobiography (appropriately titled My Autobiography), Chaplin noted that “Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator, I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.”
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role4. And the nomnomnominees are:
Tomatoes from the fruit stand
Potatoes from the potato man
A pudding cup with a coin in it
And the Oscar goes to … the pudding cup with a coin in it! Unfortunately, Hannah stole it after realizing what was going on, so we will accept this award on its behalf.
Honorable Mentions
What other movies should you be watching?
Has The Great Dictator left you itching for more well-made movies satirizing Nazis? If so, we’ve got just the movie for you. Jojo Rabbit, a 2019 comedy-drama written and directed by Taika Waititi, tells the story of an enthusiastic 10-year-old member of the Hitler Youth who must grapple with his feelings about the world when he finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. Advising him along the way is his imaginary friend Hitler (played to comedic perfection by Waititi) and his very-much-real friend (and fellow Hitler Youth member) Yorki.
While the adult performances from established actors like Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, the aforementioned Waititi, and Rebel Wilson are pitch perfect (pun intended), the real stars are Roman Griffin Davis (the titular Jojo) and Thomasin McKenzie, who plays the girl in the attic. Add in some comedic bits from Stephen Merchant and Alfie Allen, mix in a score from composer extraordinaire Michael Giacchino, and you’ve got yourself a surprisingly heartfelt and downright delightful movie.
“But wait,” you might say. “Isn’t Taika Waititi the one who does the weird Thor movies?” And while that is true, Jojo Rabbit is more even-keeled. As Ellen wrote in her Spreadsheet comment: “So, so good, and unlike my beef with some other Taika movies, allowed the seriousness to just sit and be when needed.”
Jojo Rabbit is available to rent from all the usual places you rent movies and watch things on your screen of choice.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to bake The Academy a delicious pudding sans coins. As I said up top, you hear about Charlie Chaplin as one of the comedy greats, but most people haven’t seen much. After watching him, it really makes sense to me that he hit it big just based on silent bits. The control he has over his movements is crazy, like he seems borderline liquid. That’s evident in long visual gags throughout the movie that are largely silent, despite the fact that there was the option to speak. As Tyler mentions below, the movie is not subtle, but does an excellent job of getting its point across. The ending especially is incredibly earnest, and while we can poke fun, I wouldn’t change it.
Tyler: I’d like to give The Academy a nice clean shave free of charge. Much like previous ILTBTA subject Foreign Correspondent, The Academy took an admirably bold stand by recognizing such staunchly anti-war movies (The Great Dictator more directly so) by British directors, with public sentiment on the war iffy at best and a year before the U.S. was dragged into WWII by the attack at Pearl Harbor. It also helps that The Great Dictator is, ya know, a great movie! On the surface, it’s essentially a series of physical comedy bits (led by the physical comedy GOAT) that somehow manage to continue to progress the plot forward. Beneath the surface, it’s a sharply written yet not-at-all-subtle satire that also manages to be funny and weird and beautiful all at the same time. I really appreciate when moviemakers take big swings on a film (most recent Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once being a prime example), so when they hit they hit a home run, which is what Chaplin did here.
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
If you have plots and feelings of your own (on the movie or ILTBTA in general), feel free to comment on the post or simply reply to the email. If you liked reading this: tell your friends! If you hated reading this: tell your friends how much you hated it by forwarding it to them!
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ILTBTA is also on Letterboxd, the social networking site for movie fans. Follow us there to read our Spreadsheet comments of our ILTBTA movies, plus our ratings of other movies we watch!
If you’d like to start a wild Best Picture journey of your own, feel free to download a copy of The Spreadsheet. Bonus: checking off the boxes is oddly satisfying.
Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
Enough talk of Nazis and tyrants, let’s move on to something lighter for our next post, shall we? To balance out the heavy eating you’ll be doing on Thanksgiving, our next movie will provide some lighter entertainment: the 1997 British comedy The Full Monty. Starring several British actors who make you say “hey it’s that guy from that thing,” The Full Monty tells the story of six unemployed men in northern England who form a striptease act to make some money. It can be streamed for free with a Max subscription, and rented pretty much everywhere else entertainment-via-streaming-service-app is served.
Until then, support your local Barber!
P.S. If you’re looking to help the people of Israel and Gaza, NPR has compiled a list of humanitarian organizations you can donate to. You can also help in many other ways.
So capitalized because this man will not get another name.
Ellen: Get it, like “smell awful”? Very proto-Austin Powers of them!
Tyler: Seeing you make an Austin Powers reference fills me with pride.
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.