The Great Dictator" (1940)/ you have to watch this

[sasha031]

it might take a bit to download, Chaplin was brilliant

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdictator.html

[NYCGirl]

1. Rent or buy the WHOLE MOVIE. It's worth it simply for the "globe ballet."

[USA_1]

4. 'the globe!"

That scene is historically acknowledged as one of Hollywood's greatest scenes.

EVERYONE should watch this great classic.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Text of speech:

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 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 this world there's 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 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 aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us 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 to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers: Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine 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, the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers: Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of Saint 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, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. 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, let us 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 a 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 sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier 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, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up.

[klook]

8. I felt like the whole movie was a setup for this speech

and it was utterly worth it. One of the most simultaneously entertaining and profound movies I've ever seen.

[USA_1]

3. OUTSTANDING!

I have seen the movie several times and just love it. Please watch it in its entirety.

AWESOME work by Chaplin.

[sasha031]

5. I just rented it when I saw this

I will buy the movie....Chaplin was brilliant and beautiful, so far ahead of his time

[Sydnie]

6. They did NOT want him to make this movie either

I love Chaplin. Have read many books about his life. I am so glad that he didn't listen to them and spent the long time it took to get this movie just right. It's a classic.

[greiner3]

7. This was one of the movies some years ago;

That convinced my children that a B/W movie was not something to run away from. Anything Chaplinesque is worth the time.

[ISUGRADIA]

9. The FBI was on his ass after this movie

Chaplin was seen as a "subversive"

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

12. yep, they said (i'm not making this up) he was "prematuely anti-fascist

guess he needed to cater to hitler like ford and lindbergh well into the 40s in order to be a good american in hoover's eyes

[dsc]

10. MIght well be Chaplin's best work

and that is saying something. He paid a very heavy price for that movie and his habit of liking much younger women. He refused to live in America for decades due to the McCarthism targetting him.

[Carla in Ca]

13. True. If you love Chaplin, it is hard to pick the 'best' one

He was such a talented, gifted man. Abandoned by his father at 6 and his mother in and out of mental hospitals and his youth spent in poverty, this man dedicated his life to making people laugh.
I will correct one fact, though. When he took a trip to the UK, his visa was revoked and his star on the walk of fame was removed (he was a British citizen). A despicable event that was finally reversed in 1972 when he was asked to come back to receive a life-time achievement award. His acceptance speech should be seen by everyone.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

11. charlie chaplin is my god

as my name and pic show

check out the follow-up to dictater, Monsieur Verdoux, an underappreciated gem about a man driven by big business to be a seriel killer

[liveoaktx]

14. Wonderful!!!!

I have to rent this movie.

[Greyhound]

15. One of his very best, Highly recommended. n/t