Great Dictator

Year: 1940

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Chaplin

Review

this was chaplin’s first talkie. he does a pretty good job making the transition and uses the new sense of sound rather than just letting it be there for the sake of having it. he’s got some good wordplay and makes fun of the german language.certainly it shows a certain mastery of the technique and art that is cinema, but the story is somehow lacking. i can’t put my finger on it…maybe it doesn’t do a good job of teetering between drama and comedy. though there are both funny and poignant moments it doesn’t go back and forth between them with the same grace that something like “the graduate” does. the final speech scene is quite good and i think pretty revealing of chaplin, but the movie as a whole was more long winded and not as funny as “modern times” (in my opinion his best film) so i give it a . p.s. politically ahead of its time.