The Tramp And The Dictator!

There was a time when Charlie Chaplin might well have been the most famous person on the planet. His career as one of Hollywood's earliest screen stars began in 1914 when the "Tramp" suddenly appeared in a small film called Kid Auto Races at Venice. The character was funny but abrasive at first before becoming the charming everyman hero of classics such as The Kid, The Gold Rush and City Lights. 

Ironically it seems Chaplin was born the same week in the same month in the same year as another famous 20th Century figure -- Adolph Hitler. When Hitler rose to power in Germany during the Great Depression, governments were hesitant to speak out against him. At first, he'd been a strong man dictator who helped raise Germany out of the quagmire of an exploded economy, but then he turned his sights on other surrounding countries and used his new military power to begin his conquest of Europe. The threat to world peace was looming but people wanted to ignore it. 

In 1938 after seeing Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will he decided to make a comedy mocking Hitler and calling attention to the suffering of the Jews (he had no idea of the real scope of the horror at the time). He worked for over a year and a half using largely his own money to make The Great Dictator. The movie had the support of FDR, but many warned Chaplin that it was a mistake. In those days when America remained silent, the Nazi Party was beginning to hold sway. (Note: It had fallen to The Three Stooges to call out the evil first in their classic short You Natzy Spy!) The evil identified and mocked by Chaplin so effectively was nearly poised to strike all over the world. But The Great Dictator was a success, and it became Chaplin's most lucrative film eventually. 

The story follows two men who happen to look alike -- a humble Jewish barber and a grandiose dictator -- both played Chaplin. The movie offers up some dandy comedy, but even more sympathy for a people put upon by a grim and deadly power. At end of The Great Dictator, Chaplin breaks character to some degree and speaks directly to the viewer warning them of the dangers abroad. It was an artistic gamble, and many criticize this decision to his day. But his heartfelt speech was potent then and is potent today. I think it's a bit too long, reaching its climax and then lingering too long after, but its message is nonetheless powerful. To listen to it just used this link. 

The United States is on the cusp of the most important election since the Civil War. We can choose the future and elect the supremely qualified Kamela Harris to become President and move forward into a better time, or we can once again select the doddering madman Trump to be our very own homemade musty Hitler. As I write this, the future is not yet known. I have some small dread we will make the wrong decision yet again, but I have a greater hope we will move beyond the petty hatreds which fuel that malign influence and make the right decision, the only decision which makes sense for the future of us all. The last thing the world needs is a "great dictator", if even for a day. 

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