Chaplin plays the dictator with a "Charlie Chaplin moustache" -- he looks and
        acts just like Hitler.  He also plays a Jewish barber, a hero in the "Tomanian" Army
        during the previous war World War I, and just happens to look exactly like Hynkel.
        While the movie is considered to be a farce, it has aserious message to it -- Chaplin's
        speech at the end of the film is quite serious.  The humor in this film is best
        appreciated by those who have a rudimentary understanding of World War II and
        the role the characters Hitler, Mussolini, Göebbels and Göring played in that event.

Recognition

1940 National Board of Review Awards: Ten Best films of the Year
1940 New York Film Critics Award: Best Actor (Chaplin)
1940 Academy Awards Nominations
Best Picture
Best Actor (Chaplin)
Best Supporting Actor (Oakie)
Best Original Screenplay
Best Original Score

                    Adolf Hitler was a mass murderer and sociopath, he was a political genius,
        a powerful orator and one of the first politicians to understand and exploit the mass
        media. He had a deep hatred of the Jewish people. Hitler initiated WorldWar II
        with his invasion of Poland in 1939. Hitler, in a short period of time, conquered more
        of Europe than did Napoleon.

                  Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy from 1924 to 1943.  The fascist
        program was a combination ofnationalism and socialism.  For a time Mussolini
        seemed to be in competition with Hitler, but Germany had greatermilitarily strength
        than Italy. It is during this short time of jockeying for position between Hitler and
        Mussolini that the film focuses upon.

                 Joseph Göebbels was the Nazi propaganda chief and one of the closest of
        Hitler's henchmen. His responsibility was to organize the Nazi political campaigns
        and he skillfully did so, using the mass media masterfully to further theNazi cause.

                Hermann Göring organized the Gestapo and, as commander of the German
        Air Force, prepared the aerial aspects of the Blitzkrieg campaigns during the
        Second World War.

               The Nazi Party made use of young men in "strong arm" gangs, called Storm
        Troopers, to intimidate political opponents and Jews. The Brown Shirts, as they
        were also called, grew into a private army for the Nazi party.

               The vast majority of German Jews were patriotic German citizens. Thousands
        fought on the German side in the First World War. Many were wounded in battle
        and many were decorated for valor. The Jewish barber was one of thesewounded
        war heroes.

               Approximately 12 million people died in German concentration camps during
        World War II.  Half of these were Jews.  The other six million were democrats,
        socialists, communists, gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, the religiousand
        anyone who opposed Hitler.  The Germans tried to hide what was going on in the
        concentration camps.  The conditions in these camps were not generally known by
        the Allies during the war, although rumors were often "leaking out" to the Allied
        countries.

        Identify the Following:

               Nazi:

              Storm Trooper (Brown Shirt):

              "concentration camp":

              fascist:
 

        Match the following as you watch the film:

             ___   1)  Adenoid Hynkel                    A) Herman Goering
                 ___   2)  Benzino Napolini                   B) Capital of Bacteria
                 ___   3)  Herr Garbitsch                      C) a "take-off" on the Swastika
                 ___   4)  Herr Herring                         D) Austria
                 ___   5)  Bacteria                                 E) Der Fuhrer
                 ___   6)  Tomania                                 F) Joseph Goebbels
                 ___   7)  the Double Cross                  G) Germany
                 ___   8)  Osterlich                                H) Adolf Hitler
                 ___   9)  Anschluss                               I) the invasion of Austria
                 ___ 10)  the Fooie                                J) Benito Mussolini
                ___  11)  Aroma                                   K) Italy
 

        1)  a. What commentary does Charlie Chaplin's film have to say about German
               technology: the "big gun," the "bullet- proof uniform," the "compact parachute,"
               and the parade of German armaments?
 
 

              b.  What was the true state of German technology during World War II?
 
 

      2)  What is the significance of the "dictator world dance" with the globe?  What is
           being said here?
 
 

      3)  What issue does Chaplin satirize in the scene of the arrival of Benzino Napolini at
           the train station?  Where is the satire in the train moving back and forth?
 
 

     4)  Mussolini was portrayed (in real life) as a model husband and family man.  What
          was he like really?   How does the film portray him?
 
 

     5)  The Nazi party was a proponent of the theory known as the "Aryan Myth."  What
          was the "Aryan Myth"?
 
 

     6)  The sign of the Nazi party was the swastika.  In the movie, the symbol of Hynkel's
          party is the "double-cross" whichlooks very much like a dismembered swastika.
          What is Chaplin trying to say through this symbolism?
 
 

     7)  What does the scene at the buffet say to the viewer about the ability of dictators
         (at least these two dictators) to "talk out" an aggreement with each other?  Why
         can't they negotiate successfully with each other?
 
 
 

     8)  In listening to the Jewish barber's speech at the end of the film, how is he counter
          to what Herr Garbitsch has to say?
 

.

     9)  a.  Would you have tried to resist Hitler if you had lived in Germany during this
                 time?  Explain.
 

           b.  What could/would you have done?
 

   10) Check the WWW for information on Charlie Chaplin.  How outspoken was he
         about the Nazi government?  Illustrate with some examples.

--The Barber's Speech to the German People --

              "I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor -- that's not my business.  I don't
        want to rule or conquer anyone.  I should like to help everyone if possible: Jew,
        gentile, black man, white.  We all want to help one another -- human beings are
        like that.  We [all] want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's
        misery.  We don't want to hate and despise one another.  In thisworld there is
        room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

               "The way of life can be free and beautiful.  But we have lost the way.  Greed
        has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped
        us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut
        ourselves in.  Machinery that gives us abundance has left us in want.  Our
        knowledge has made us cynical.  Our cleverness hard and unkind.  We think too
        much and feel too little.  More than machinery, we need humanity.  More than
        cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.  Without these qualities, life will be
        violent and all will be lost.

                The airplane and the radio have brought us together.  The very nature of
        these inventions cries out for the goodness of men, cries out for universal
        brotherhood for the unity of all.  Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout
        the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a
        system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.  To those who can
        hear me, I say, "Do not despair."

                The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of
        men who fear the way of human progress.  The hate of men will pass and dictators
        die, and the power they took from the people, will return; and so long as men die
        [now] liberty will never perish . . .

                Soldiers, don't give yourself to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you.
        Who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what you feel, who
        drill you, diet you, treat you likecattle, use you as cannon fodder.  Don't give
        yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, withmachine minds and
        machine hearts.  You are not machines.  You are not cattle.  You are men.  You
        have the love of humanity in your hearts.  You don't hate -- only the unloved hate.
        Only the unloved and unnatural.  Soldiers, don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty!

                In the seventeenth chapter of Luke, it is written, "the kingdom of God is within
        man." -- not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men -- in you!   You, the people,
        have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful
        adventure.  Then, in the name of democracy, letus use that power.  Let us all unite.
        Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work,
        that will give you the future and old age and security.  By the promise of these
        things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie.  They do not fulfill their promise,
        they never will.
        Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

                Now let us fight to fulfill that promise.  Let us fight to free the world, to do
        away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance.  Let
        us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all
        men's happiness.

                Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

                Hannah, can you hear me?  Wherever you are,look up, Hannah.  The clouds
        are lifting, the sunis breaking through.  We are coming out of the darkness into the
        light.  We are coming into a new world.  A kind new world where men will rise
        above their hate, their greed and brutality.

                Look up Hannah.  The soul of man has been given wings, and at last, he is
        beginning to fly.  He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope.  Into the
        future.  That glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us.  Look up
        Hannah.  Look up.

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