Greatest Movie Scenes #81 - THE GREAT DICTATOR

By Matt Holmes / June 24, 2011

So I'm back in charge of the Greatest Movie Scenes feature after a brief time away from it and I promise some awesome moments of spectacular cinema to come in the weeks ahead. Some real treats to digest and discuss. I heard this week that a new 15th anniversary edition of the Richard Attenborough movie CHAPLIN is to be released on October 15th, a movie which features an Academy Award nominated performance from a young Robert Downey Jr. Which got me thinking of the real life film legend and this week, I've been attempting to catch up on his movies, many of which I haven't seen in years. For me, his best and most astonishing work was THE GREAT DICTATOR.

A movie made during the Second World War where Hitler was still very much a global and feared figure, a film star took a tremendous risk by acting, directing and financing such a strong Anti Nazi-propaganda film. Such a satirical nightmare, such anger from Chaplin. In this scene, we can really feel his hatred towards men like Adolf Hitler and how psychologically insane such dictators are. Treating the world as their plaything, something they own and can dance around with, juggle about with to their heart's content. But of course the greed of figures like Hitler, they won't stop until they have made war with everything. The only conclusion is for the world to blow up, you can never own it all without having nothing left to own. It will blow up in your face and all you can do then is cry.

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