Charlie Chaplin rings true... eighty years ago

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signalmankenneth

Verified User
This came out while George W Bush was president!
Chaplin really made the transition from slient to talkies!
Very Good Speech!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZcJE7ExhtY"]YouTube- Charlie Chaplin speaks[/ame]
 
Since you posted it with an exlamation point, I am sure you think that the "This came out while George W Bush was president!" has some bearing here.

It doesn't.

The speech sounds really nice, but is ultimately just sentimental nonsense.

Greed? Funny that political parties always want to talk about greed, but never seem to be willing to forego their paychecks and their wealth for the good of their fellow man. They never seem willing to chance campaign contribution laws or go against the lobbyists that pollute our system. People are accused of greed when they want to keep more of the money that they earned. People are accused of greed when they spend half their life busting their ass and making sacrifices to gain a reward. And usually they are accused of this by people who made no sacrifice and put forth little effort, but want the same rewards.

Emotions are an integral part of who we are. But we should never be ruled by emotion, but instead be ruled by logical thought. Otherwise we are at the mercy of whoever presents the most heartwrenching argument, not who is right.

Soldiers fight for whoever is in charge. It is the nature of the game. If they do not, they are mercenaries.




Great video of a great actor. But ultimately its not much more.
 
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It was a very good speech. What year? I wish he wasn't sporting the Adolph mustache.
 
Annie said:
It was a very good speech. What year? I wish he wasn't sporting the Adolph mustache.
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The Great Dictator is a comedy film written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October 1940, it was Chaplin's first true talking picture, and more importantly was the only major film of its period to bitterly satirize Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

The film is unusual for its period, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, the latter of whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".

The film was Chaplin's first "talkie", as well as his most commercially successful film
 
signalmankenneth said:
The Great Dictator is a comedy film written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October 1940, it was Chaplin's first true talking picture, and more importantly was the only major film of its period to bitterly satirize Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

The film is unusual for its period, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, the latter of whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".

The film was Chaplin's first "talkie", as well as his most commercially successful film
Click to expand...

I watched it again recently and it has lost none of its power, it is without doubt Chaplin's greatest film. Especially ironic, considering that he was on Hitler's hit list, was the way he was treated after the war by[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] the House of Un-American Activities Committee[/FONT]
 
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WinterBorn said:
Since you posted it with an exlamation point, I am sure you think that the "This came out while George W Bush was president!" has some bearing here.

It doesn't.

The speech sounds really nice, but is ultimately just sentimental nonsense.

Greed? Funny that political parties always want to talk about greed, but never seem to be willing to forego their paychecks and their wealth for the good of their fellow man. They never seem willing to chance campaign contribution laws or go against the lobbyists that pollute our system. People are accused of greed when they want to keep more of the money that they earned. People are accused of greed when they spend half their life busting their ass and making sacrifices to gain a reward. And usually they are accused of this by people who made no sacrifice and put forth little effort, but want the same rewards.

Emotions are an integral part of who we are. But we should never be ruled by emotion, but instead be ruled by logical thought. Otherwise we are at the mercy of whoever presents the most heartwrenching argument, not who is right.

Soldiers fight for whoever is in charge. It is the nature of the game. If they do not, they are mercenaries.




Great video of a great actor. But ultimately its not much more.
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Ahhh Winter. This was edited from "The Great Dictator" and the speech was meant as an ironic satire of Hitler. Pay attention to the last few sentences to see Chaplin's real point "Soldiers In The Name of Democracy Let Us All Unite!". Get the irony here?

In this performance Chaplin is using satire to actually be critical of this kind of emotional demagoguery that Hitler was such a master of (and thus the Hitler mustache). When you see the Chaplin's speech from this perspective, it's not just great acting, it's a great speech too.
 
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signalmankenneth said:
The Great Dictator is a comedy film written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October 1940, it was Chaplin's first true talking picture, and more importantly was the only major film of its period to bitterly satirize Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

The film is unusual for its period, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, the latter of whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".

The film was Chaplin's first "talkie", as well as his most commercially successful film
Click to expand...
I believe it also won the Academy Award. I think "The Great Dictator" is one of the most under appreciated master pieces of modern Cinema and Chaplin's greatest work. This speech was superb writing and the fact that people so easily miss the satirization of Hitler in this speech is a tribute to Chaplin as a master actor.
 
Annie said:
It was a very good speech. What year? I wish he wasn't sporting the Adolph mustache.
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That's kinda the whole point Annie. Chaplin is satirizing Hitler in this speech and he does so brilliantly. Don't you just want to get out of your chair and start cheering? That's the kind of charismatic power Hitler had and that's why Chaplin has the Hitler mustache. He's savaging Hitler and the Nazi's in this speech.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Ahhh Winter. This was edited from "The Great Dictator" and the speech was meant as an ironic satire of Hitler. Pay attention to the last few sentences to see Chaplin's real point "Soldiers In The Name of Democracy Let Us All Unite!". Get the irony here?

In this performance Chaplin is using satire to actually be critical of this kind of emotional demagoguery that Hitler was such a master of (and thus the Hitler mustache). When you see the Chaplin's speech from this perspective, it's not just great acting, it's a great speech too.
Click to expand...

I agree that "The Great Dictator" was one of the finest pieces of cinema ever produced, and hands down the greatest in its day. I also agree that Chaplin was a genuis as an actor, writer, director and producer.

My comments were made due to the attempt to politicize the clip.
 
WinterBorn said:
I agree that "The Great Dictator" was one of the finest pieces of cinema ever produced, and hands down the greatest in its day. I also agree that Chaplin was a genuis as an actor, writer, director and producer.

My comments were made due to the attempt to politicize the clip.
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I have to agree with you there. That didn't make much sense. Unless he was using this movie as a warning of the slippery slope between Authoritarianism (Like Bush) and Totalitarianism (Like Hitler). In that respect. I think this movie is a great educational tool and that it should be shown in high schools to warn students about the dangers or authoritarianism and totalitrianism. In it's way, this Movie is as good as Animal Farm.

We grew up with the WWII/Great Depresion generation as our gandparents. The younger generation are a generation removed from that reality and this is just dust bin history shit to them.
 
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