Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" Speech
"The Great Dictator"
The Great Dictator is a movie that Charlie Chaplin stared in, directed. and wrote in 1940, the time that WWII. It takes place in Tomainia where a dictator has taken over control of the country, and wants to take over the rest of the world as well. Then, a barber, played by Charlie Chaplin, gets confused with the dictator and ends up giving a speech as him. At one point in the speech he says "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." While this speech was given in the fictional movie people saw real world meaning in this. Because Chaplin was the one who wrote the speech they saw it as Charlie Chaplin encouraging the US to enter WWII and giving support to other countries and the people of those countries, and he was doing this for all of his fans that would go and see this movie. This is important because it shows how popular movie stars are, and how they know that what they say in films could cause the public to realize there is a problem and take a stand against it. Without films Charlie Chaplin never would have been able to give this speech and give his opinion on this issue in a way that so many would be able to hear it.