3. Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Remember when I said we'd be returning to Chaplin? That time has come. Seven years after The Great Dictator Charlie Chaplin came out with Monsieur Verdoux, a darkly comic tale about a man who seduces financially endowed widows and then poisons them to inherit their fortunes. Despite the classic Chaplin brand of comedy that is apparent throughout, Monsieur Verdoux is a tonally dark, somber and just all around cynical film. So, what happened in those seven years that caused Chaplin to change his style so dramatically? Well, for starters he was chased out of America by a pitchfork and torch wielding mob. And of course there's that other thing; kind of a small affair, really. You may have heard of it: World War II. Seeing the war and all it comprised proved to Chaplin that his hopeful viewpoint expressed in The Great Dictator was a pipe dream at best. But much like The Great Dictator, Monsieur Verdoux ends with Chaplin delivering another astounding oratory, but again, one much more cynical. He opens the monologue by saying that for 35 years he used his intelligence for good, but after that, "nobody wanted them." He then goes on to say that mass killing is encouraged by the people, that our governments have learned how to commit mass killings "scientifically." In the film's very last scene before Verdoux (Chaplin) is marched (he walks so casually) to his fate, he utters the most heartbreakingly true line in all of cinema: "One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero." So how is it that Monsieur Verdoux is relevant today? Better yet, how are both of Chaplin's conflicting viewpoints relevant simultaneously? Well, they're both true. Our modern world has found so many positive and productive uses for science, uses that aid and better our daily lives. But for every altruist there's an opportunist, a sly fox whose language is so diplomatic he's to be considered charismatic and likable (much like Hitler, and strangely enough, Verdoux). Think of the number of innocent lives lost due to drone strikes. It's a sad fact, science and technology are tools; it's the hands they're in that make them good or evil.