TEXTO
The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin’s first film
with dialogue. Chaplin plays both a little Jewish barber,
living in the ghetto, and Hynkel, the dictator ruler of
Tomainia – a dead-on parody of German dictator Adolf
[5] Hitler, to whom Chaplin bore a remarkable physical
resemblance, in part because Hitler had chosen the
same toothbrush moustache as the Little Tramp.
Exploiting that resemblance, Chaplin devised a satire
in which the dictator and a Jewish barber from the
[10] ghetto would be mistaken for each other. In the movie,
the Jewish barber, who is mistaken for the dictator
he resembles, is asked to take his place. At the film’s
conclusion, he rejects his position as emperor and
gives an impassioned speech that has become one
[15] of the most famous in film history.
“There was something uncanny in the
resemblance between the Little Tramp and Adolf
Hitler, representing opposite poles of humanity,” writes
Chaplin biographer David Robinson. “Providence was
[20] in an ironical mood when it was ordained that Charles
Chaplin and Adolf Hitler should make their entry into
the world within four days of each other….Each in
his own way has expressed the ideas, sentiments,
aspirations of the millions of struggling citizens
[25] ground between the upper and the lower millstone of
society. (…) Each has mirrored the same reality – the
predicament of the “little man” in modern society. Each
is a distorting mirror, the one for good, the other for
untold evil.”
[30] The movie, released in 1940, was the highestgrossing of his career (was nominated for five
Academy Awards), although it would cause him great
difficulties and indirectly lead to his long exile from the
United States.
Disponível em: charliechaplin.com/en/articles/29-the-final-speechfrom-the-great-dictator. Acesso em: 28 dez. 2020. Adaptado.
In the movie, the dictator Hynkel and the Jewish barber were confused with each other because they
