THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940)

Alasdair and Robin introduce this special big screen outing of Chaplin’s masterful and timely satire.  They will explore how Chaplin skillfully used comedy to take aim at authoritarianism, racism, and war. Released before the USA entered WWII, The Great Dictator was Chaplin’s first talking picture, and he didn’t hold back.

His brilliant lampooning of Adolf Hitler made the film both a courageous act of defiance and a masterclass in using humour as a political weapon. Despite being banned in Nazi-occupied territories and doubts about its success elsewhere the film became Chaplin’s highest grossing film. The film’s closing speech—a moving appeal for peace and humanity—remains strikingly relevant in today’s turbulent world. One of cinema’s most daring and significant works on the big screen.