On Dictators

Russia invaded Ukraine, and I don’t feel like joking today. I also doubt my ability to say something uplifting or insightful on the conflict.

So instead, I’m going to talk a little bit about Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin became famous as a silent film star who usually played a single character: the Tramp. The Tramp was a poor, clownish fellow getting into cartoon-y antics in a series of really wonderful films. City Lights and Modern Times are both amazing satires and feats of dazzling creativity.

In 1940, long after silent films had lost their luster, Chaplin tried something truly bold. He released The Great Dictator. The film is still by and large a comedy, and about a Jewish barber, who still has all the essential charm of the Tramp, and a megalomaniac dictator named Hynkel. Hynkel is an angry ruler with a tiny mustache, and yes, you can see where this is going. During World War II, Chaplin made a film making fun of Hitler. Chaplin was the right actor, the right creator, and the right person to fight a dictator with jokes.

Towards the very end of the film, the barber is mistaken for Hyknel and is forced to give a speech. So a silent film star and a silent film character in a comedy about Hitler takes the stage and…

See for yourself.

Some critics and audiences found that speech out of place in a comedy. The amazing critic Roger Ebert wrote, “It didn't work then, and it doesn't work now. It is fatal when Chaplin drops his comic persona, abruptly changes the tone of the film, and leaves us wondering how long he is going to talk (a question that should never arise during a comedy).”

But I love that speech. It’s insightful and uplifting. It’s so hopeful. It’s gutsy to make a comedy about a terrible dictator, but you can hide sharp truths behind jokes. Chaplin stopped hiding here, and that is infinitely more brave to me. And even though it’s dispiriting that 82 years later we find ourselves in such a similar position as the one Chaplin found himself in, I still want to believe every word.

If you’re worried or upset today, I hope you see this. I hope it helps.