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Film showing Cancelled…First-Friday Free Large Screen Film Showing: Charlie Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR
May 6, 2016 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
FREEA true classic by a master storyteller and a hilarious warning for today!
For the young, see it . For the older, see it again.
THE GREAT DICTATOR
(1940. 124 min. Comedy-Drama. Written, directed, and starring Charles Chaplin. Music by Meredith Wilson and Charles Chaplin. Also stars Paulette Goddard and Jack Oakie. Black/white. Rated G.)
Charles Chaplin’s classic, The Great Dictator, tells the story of a Jewish barber (Chaplin) in the country of Tomania who saves the life of an officer in World War I.
Twenty years later, Tomania is taken over by a dictator, Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin again), who despises all Jews. The barber, whose shop is in the ghetto, gets into a slapstick confrontation with Aryan stormtroopers. The barber is rescued by the man whom he saved years earlier, now a loyal officer to Hynkel and able to protect the ghetto briefly. Eventually, Hynkel eventually bears down on the ghetto anyway.
Near the film’s end when Hynkel is expected to make one of his hate-filled, war-mongering speeches, Chaplin drops character and makes an impassioned plea for peace and humanity.
When the film was released, the United States had not yet entered World War II. Its buffoonery, mixed with political satire, stirred controversial for its unmistakable references to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, fascism, anti-semitism.
Made in a time of swirling anger and factionalism similar to what we see today, The Great Dictator became Chaplin’s most commercially successful film and his first talking feature film.
It was nominated for five Oscars: Outstanding Production, Best Actor (Charlie Chaplin), Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Oakie), and Best Music (Original Score).
In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin said he could not have made the film had he known about the horrors of Nazi concentration camps at the time.
Doors open at 6:30p.m. for light refreshments. After film discussion, all invited. For more information and directions, visit www.delcopeacecenter.org or call 610-544-1818. Co-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community.