The Great Dictator (1940) on Netflix
Approved19402h 5mComedyDramaWar
A Jewish barber reopens his shop in a Tomanian ghetto after years in a hospital. The country is ruled by dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who looks like him and persecutes its Jewish people.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb8.4/10260,392 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
On the Western Front, a Jewish soldier in the Tomanian army rescues a wounded pilot, Commander Schultz. Their plane crashes after running out of fuel, and the soldier loses his memory. He spends years in a hospital, then is released and returns to his trade as a barber, in a ghetto where Jewish people face discrimination. The country is now a dictatorship under Adenoid Hynkel, a ruler who bears a striking resemblance to the barber.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Dictator (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Chaplin viewed Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will at the Museum of Modern Art with French filmmaker René Clair; while Clair was horrified, Chaplin laughed uproariously and used the film to inspire elements of The Great Dictator and mimic Hitler's mannerisms.
- The Great Dictator was banned in many parts of Europe, and the owner of London's Prince of Wales Theatre, Alfred Esdaile, was apparently fined for showing the film's UK premiere in 1941.
- Chaplin arranged to send the film to Adolf Hitler, and an eyewitness confirmed he saw it; Hitler's architect Albert Speer denied Hitler ever saw it, but another account says Hitler viewed it twice.
- The scene where Chaplin shaves a customer to Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5 was recorded in a single take by accident; composer Meredith Willson wrote that the run-through was meant only as a rehearsal, but it was used in the finished picture.
- The final speech in The Great Dictator has been sampled in more than 40 songs. Coldplay and U2 have played the speech during live shows, and Lavazza used it in a television advertisement.
