I'm Sorry But I Don't Want To Be An Emperor

Being the notorious media hound I am, it comes as a shock (A SHOCK!) that last night was the first night I'd ever seen "Casablanca" or "The Great Dictator". Surely you know Casablanca (Don't call me Shirley-RIP L.N.) but The Great Dictator you may not know much about. Let's change that.

The Great Dictator, written by, directed by, scored by, and starring the great Charlie Chaplin, is his view of the terror sweeping Europe in the late 1930's. The film speaks candidly about Concentration Camps and Jewish oppression, but Chaplin himself said that if he had known the true extent of the Nazi's malice he would never have made the film. I was drawn to it not only for the buffoonery of the Dictator role, but that of The Jewish Barber. Chaplin played dual roles in this film to great comedic effect, but also to remind the audience that we are all human. The Jewish Barber embroils himself in the resistance movement which eventually gains him freedom, albeit not the manner of freedom in which he wished.

The Great Dictator was nominated for 5 academy awards, including Best Picture, and personally I like Chaplin's earlier silent film "City Lights" the most out of all his work, but I recommend the heckfire out of either of them. Yes they're black and white, yes one of them is silent: grow up.

I wanted to leave you with the Dictator's final speech, but not just with a video link. You may find that here. The speech is a beautiful piece of writing, so let us read it as such. You can read more about, arguably, the best comic in cinema here. Now, you know me: I believe the greatest film comics were the Marx Brothers, but that's for another day. After the speech, see if you can find the excerpt used in the video below, one of the finest examples of the mash-up out there today, "40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes".

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 men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others' happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is 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 as 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 man; 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 and 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 a 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 St. Luke, it’s 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 youth a 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!

Now, on to the show: