Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator

The main character, a young, German man named Peter Muller, was very traumatized by what the Nazi's and Gestapo (the terrorist political police of the Nazi regime founded by Hermann Göring, whose purpose was to persecute all political opponents of the Nazi regime) did to his father. Over the course of the movie, Peter went through a change; he saw his father in a new light, and realized what really mattered in the world around him. Peter's father was a violinist and professor at the university. He spoke out against the expulsion of the Jewish professors and the entire Nazi movement. Because of this, one night, in the middle of dinner, he was taken away by the Gestapo. He was brought back home

There have been countless atrocities committed throughout history. Most of these atrocities are justified and developed from ideas and false realities. The most infamous atrocity of all history, the holocaust is no exception. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany from 1933 until his suicide at the end of WWII, was directly responsible for the deaths of over 12 million people. Alan Bullock in his book Hitler a Study in Tyranny dispels any notion that any of Hitler’s ideas were original. Bullock proposes that Hitler and his rise to power was a product of other political ideas and a knack for exploiting the timing of events to extend his influence. According to Bullock Hitler’s coming to power was the product the political ideals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which he was exposed to, the world post-WWI, and a knack for exposition events to his favor. He used his gifts of using propaganda and his organizational skills to use politics as a means to achieving power.

However, as Wolfgang Ruge argues, “the Nazi party developed a propaganda apparatus whose activities far eclipsed all previous heights of the demagogy of German imperialism.” On this note, it is widely agreed by historians that the regime was highly successful in one of Friedreich's principles; control of the increasingly powerful mass media in German society as a mechanism for public control. Primarily coordinated through the work of propaganda minister Goebbels, Hitler was portrayed as a leader who was at the same time moderate and reasonable who put the national good before his own interest. Other themes highlighted images of strength and authority which appealed to the highly nationalist German population; epitomised by Hitler appearing out of the sky to lead the German people depicted in Riefenstahl's 1934 film Triumph of the Will, still widely considered the most influential propaganda film of all time. The radio, state produced to be inexpensive, become the regimes number one weapon as it allowed propaganda to not only infiltrate but permeate as many homes as possible.

The film Triumph of the Will was created in 1934 after Hitler was named Fuhrer of Germany. At the time, Hitler was eager to improve the public image of the NSDP (National Socialist German Workers ' Party). After his election as chancellor in Early January 1933, Hitler gave Leni Riefenstahl the job of filming the annual NSDAP conference in Nuremberg, Germany . Riefenstahl accepted the offer and agreed document, direct and edit the Conference. As years pasted, the infamous “documentary” began to be speculated as possible Nazi Propaganda.

After World War I, Adolf Hitler was one of the dictators that arose; which then gained power in Germany in its Great Depression. Hitler rose to power using techniques such as propaganda, censorship, charisma and terror, but that was not all he did. Hitler started his own fascist party in Germany and called it the Nazi Party. Later, Hitler developed anti-semitism, or prejudice against Jews and dehumanized them. He viewed Jews as a separate race not a religion. This caused many changes particularly to the Jews. During World War I the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews caused political, economic, and social changes.

The creation of propaganda films and posters required a small amount of people to produce, but was still a key part in the grand scheme of propaganda. The Nazis had a Film Academy in which they taught new recruits how to make films and distributed the films that the experts made on their own. These films discretely captured the thoughts of Jews in the minds of Nazis, filling them with stereotypes and threats to the community. The film “The Blue Light” is a film featuring a character that depicted a Jewish woman who found herself near a cave filled with tantalizing, glowing crystals. As she approached the cave, she slipped on a cliff and fell to her death. Later, an entire village of people learned of this cave of riches. Instinctively, they took up arms to carry out an expedition on a potential fortune. Instead, the whole village plummeted to its death. These characters were depictions of greed, a stereotypical characteristic of the Jewish people. These offensive displays were part of the propaganda that persuaded France and Great Britain into declaring war to begin World War II.

Compared to our own class textbook, I feel as if the movie covered the change of East Germany well with emotional family love and a touch of comedy.

Just like France, the United States, and Russia, Germany also began to make films, as a way to entertain the working class in an inexpensive way. By 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power, creating very harsh social condition that made several writers, actors, and directors flee Germany because they feared that if they stayed they would have gotten killed. Joseph Goebbels later came to run the UFA, as a government owned production company to make films that were shown to civilians and the military as propaganda on March 13 , 1933, and intended to censor German cinema to make the people believe that they were fascist. Numerous movies in that period of time tried to steer clear of talking about the Holocaust to distract people from what was really happening and to make Hitler seem almost godlike. One film in particular directed by Leni Riefenstahl called The Triumph of the Will became a well known example of propaganda in film history. Throughout the film, you really get to experience a sense of historical context that influenced thousands of people during the time of World War 2. Today, several people view The Triumph of the Will and have a difficult time distinguishing whether or not they can conclude if they view the film as propaganda or an actual piece of art.

The films of the World War II era were much more than just stories about life or love; each unique film showed a different portrayal of the war effort. Although the films showed aspects of the war such as American involvement and cultural aspects, it was not always obvious to see the propaganda behind the façade. Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, is a wartime film that promotes American involvement and contains subtle propaganda.

Many films were produced in the World War II era showing how Americans lived during that time. Some of the greatest films were produced in this era, for example, Casablanca. Casablanca was released in 1942, and is one of the greatest war movies in American history. It depicts life during the early stages of the war in a neutral Africa. This film attempts to promote the war and succeeds as propaganda. Casablanca portrayed isolation, sacrifice, and the threat of fascism to American society.

Many films that make a mockery of dictators have been released over the years, but two of those films stand out for how accurate their parodies are in reality, that stands up to a known oppressor. These two films are The Great Dictator (1940) and The Interview (2014). These two films share the comedic twist of Classical Hollywood Narrative to outline their story. Unlike many other films mocking a dictator these two films create a parody of a known figure in modern history to demoralize each despot for the good of the oppressed society. Outside of the film itself, they share a severe backlash upon release that involves bombings, cyber-attacks, and bans on both films. The following discussion will examine how the similarities in the techniques employed by each filmmaker during development helped to strengthen each film’s satiric impact, while also causing each film to incur a similarly harsh and violent reception upon debut.

The Great Dictator Assignment Charles Chaplin’s The Great Dictator is a film based around the persecution and mistreatment of Jews during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s by Hitler and Nazi Germany. The Great Dictator uses themes such as standing up against mistreatment and incorporates humor and comedy to criticize Hitler and Nazism. Mistreatment and injustice were two of the most prominent themes in the film. The Jews were subject to hate because of the way Hynkel looked down upon them.

Great words spoken by a truly great man in his speech from The Great Dictator. Charlie Chaplin expressed a single idea that summed up a single and painful period in history, “We all think too much and feel too little.” As much as people expected from me I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to grow up during the time that the streets were filled with the sound of swing. A moment of time where I could escape to and feel free from my burdens that weigh heavy on my shoulders. This is a place that I can think about to avoid the scar that covers most of my heart.

I agreed on the point mention on how the film allows us to understand more on the struggles Chaplin underwent; not only in his personal life but also professionally. Chaplin’s life experiences are inscribed in Charlie Chaplin’s films. Chaplin’s first love is portrayed in City Lights, the effects of the great depression in his political and personal views are represented in Modern Times and of course his political views concerning Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship is detailed on the last scene of The Great Dictator.

In the 1940’s film The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin plays the role of a Jewish Barber set in a time similar to that of World War II. The jewish barber shares a striking resemblance to that of the great dictator Hynkel. In the third act of the film Hynkel is captured by mistake from his own soldiers and they mistaken the jewish barber as their great dictator. With this new great power bestowed upon the jewish barber he uses this chance to cry out to the people of the newly invaded country that Hynkel had sieged. In this short speech Charlie Chaplin delivers it with a style similar to that of Hitler. Chaplin at this point uses pure emotions to fuel his speech while he brings strategies such as hyperboles and metaphors to convince the audience to stand up for what 's right and to bring humanity back to what we as humans once were.