The Great Dictator (2 Disc Special Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carter DeHaven, Chester Conklin, Eddie Dunn, Henry Daniell, Rudolph AndersBrand: Warner Brothers
Primary Contributor: Goddard, Paulette
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-01
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Great Dictator (2 Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: The Little Tramp speaks! And, oh, what he says!
Summary: 5 Stars
What a glorious, uplifting movie this is. A great cri de coeur against war and hatered, and in favor of tolerance and peace. That the message it presents is, by this point, somewhat of a given does nothing to diminish its importance.
You doubtless know of the plot by now. Charlie Chaplin, a man with a moustache suspiciously similar to a certain unpleasant fellow in history, plays the role of an anti-Semetic dictator named Hinkel and a poor Jewish barber. That these two look exactly the same is obvious. That the fact doesn't come in handy until the end is somewhat unexpected, but still great.
The movie avoids getting bogged down in all the obvious traps that await a film with content such as this. It doesn't become preachy until the very last couple minutes when the Little Tramp (not called that, but let's face it, he is), stands and makes a speech that most people seem to feel brings the film to a grinding halt. Not I. I really liked it and the statements therein. They were obvious, but needed to be said. That they still do need saying is a sad commentary on where we are versus where we should be.
This disc includes some amazing special features, such as behind-the-scenes color footage and the usual trailers, etc. What makes for a really nice bonus, however, is the inclusion of a documentry on the relationship between Hitler and Chaplin (born only a few days apart). It includes a lot of information on this movie as well as, stunningly, some great photos showing Hitler in a crowd in Berlin on the day war was declared back in 1914.
This movie is worth every penny you pay for it, but if you want to get it at a good price, buy The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 1 (Modern Times / The Great Dictator / The Gold Rush / Limelight), and you can get not only this movie, but three other great films as well. Not a bad deal!
This is the first Chaplin film I've seen and to this date the only one of his movies I've seen more than once. The fact that I'm now willing to buy every single one of his films on the basis of this and the other one I've seen, Modern Times (2 Disc Special Edition), speaks well of Chaplin in general and this movie in particular.
You really owe it to yourself to see this film.
Summary of The Great Dictator (2 Disc Special Edition)
Since Adolf Hitler had the audacity to borrow his mustache from the most famous celebrity in the world--Charlie Chaplin--it meant Hitler was fair game for Chaplin's comedy. (Strangely, the two men were born within four days of each other.) The Great Dictator, conceived in the late thirties but not released until 1940, when Hitler's war was raging across Europe, is the film that skewered the tyrant. Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel, the power-mad ruler of Tomania, and a humble Jewish barber suffering under the dictator's rule. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, plays the barber's beloved; and the rotund comedian Jack Oakie turns in a weirdly accurate burlesque of Mussolini, as a bellowing fellow dictator named Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin himself hits one of his highest moments in the amazing sequence where he performs a dance of love with a large inflated globe of the world. Never has the hunger for world domination been more rhapsodically expressed. The slapstick is swift and sharp, but it was not enough for Chaplin. He ends the film with the barber's six-minute speech calling for peace and prophesying a hopeful future for troubled mankind. Some critics have always felt the monologue was out of place, but the lyricism and sheer humanity of it are still stirring. This was the last appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, and not coincidentally it was his first all-talking picture. --Robert HortonThe U.S. was not yet in World War II when Chaplin leveled his comedy arsenal at Der Fuehrer by playing the dual roles of Hitler-like Adenoid Hynkel and a Jewish barber who is a dead-ringer look-alike for der Nutsie. Puns sight gags and slapstick abound as Chaplin skewers fascism balancing his attack with poignant scenes of a ghetto in the clutches of storm-trooping terror. Immortal bits include Hynkel's besotted dance with a globe the upside-down flight and Hynkel and a Mussolini-like Jack Oakie madly cranking their barber chairs higher and higher. Great comedy meets great filmmaking passion in The Great Dictator.Running Time: 126 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085393765026
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