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In Reply to: Can film watching turn out to be duty ? Jean Renoir´s.... posted by patrickU on September 30, 2003 at 04:40:06:
I presume you're referring to "The Great Dictator". I am just beginning to explore Mr. Chaplin's flims--this was my first one--and I must say that as propaganda, it was heartfelt and brave, but as art, it's a mess. To combine physical comedy like the bit in the barber's chair with such harrowing scenes as we see elsewhere in the film is simply too wide a stretch in tone for the whole to emerge as a coherent movie. And that monologue at the end is possibly the most cringe-inducing thing I've ever seen in a film made before 1950.Again, I respect him for striking a blow against tyranny, but I never want to see it again.
djprobed
Follow Ups:
It was a propagada film. The only point we could agree on ( I refuse to call it a critic ..) is the last ( jewish-lament-communistic-naive-but so humanistic-utopian ) monolog.
All the rest is so funny and so...touch by genius as one human can be-through hard work.
How can you NOT fell on your knees at the scene were Adolph play with the world? How can you not be philosopically touched by the twin irony of the double faced?
This film was so much ahead of his time.
If you knew history you would cry. On you.
you both are mistaking political satire for propaganda.
The very fact that it is difficult to agree on what genre this film really is, I would say, supports my position.In my opinioin there is nothing satirical about the final monologue--it is pure propaganda.
I agree that the rest of the political content would probably be more appropriately classified as satire. But again, sometimes the satire is hard-hitting (the way the stormtroopers are portrayed as they bully people in the streets), sometimes it is like a newspaper cartoon brought to life (the image of the Hitler character playing with the globe, which I admit is a great image on its own), and sometimes the humour has nothing to do with the political message (the slapstick bits such as the barber chair).
And I don't need a history lesson, thank you very much. Reflecting on the Holocaust can indeed bring me to tears, even if this film doesn't. I should also mention that I don't object to the mixing of tragedy and comedy as a rule, if these elements are blended with balance and good timing; I just don't feel this film succeeds aesthetically in this respect.
djprobed
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