Review – The Great Dictator

Given the physical resemblance between Charlie Chaplin’s famous “Little Tramp” and Germany’s infamous tyrant – however dependent on the moustache the similarity may have been – this should have been a better film. The lion’s share of the blame must unfortunately be placed upon Chaplin himself; the profound comic genius of his silent movies translates poorly at best to the sound era. Indeed, this movie’s almost more entertaining if watched with the sound off. The slapstick still comes through, so you’re getting the highlights without concerning yourself with the finer points of the go-nowhere plot (a silly farce about a Jewish barber being mistaken for the Great Dictator himself). Of course with the volume down you’ll miss the bits where Chaplin lapses into side-splitting rants of mock-German. But on the up-side, you’ll also miss the ineptly preachy speech at the end. Chaplin fans owe this at least one viewing (for the globe sequence if nothing else), but otherwise most of the great artist’s other offerings make better choices. Mildly amusing