The Great Dictator

The Great Dictator is a 1940 American anti-war political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced, scored, and starring British comic Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin made his first proper sound film after being the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue making silent films deep into the sound cinema era.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, as well as fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, were all condemned in Chaplin's picture. The United States was still technically at peace with Nazi Germany and neutral during the early days of World War II at the time of its original release. Chaplin plays a cruel fascist ruler as well as a persecuted Jewish barber.

The Great Dictator was well received by spectators and became Chaplin's most commercially successful film. Modern critics have lauded it as a historically significant film, one of the finest comedies ever made, and a remarkable work of satire. Critics, historians, and film buffs have frequently cited Chaplin's final monologue as probably the finest monologue in film history, and possibly the most poignant recorded speech of the twentieth century. The Library of Congress chose it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1997. The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations: Outstanding Production, Best Actor, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Oakie), and Best Music (Original Score).

Chaplin remarked in his book in 1964 that he could not have created the film if he had understood the actual magnitude of the atrocities of Nazi concentration camps at the time.

Cast

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Internatinal versions

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