Saturday

Writing about The Great Dictator yesterday it occurred to me how the street fights with Nazis (or Tomanians) are no different from the fights in his earlier films with policemen in the London/New York slums. He has transferred the context to one with much more serious implications. I'm guessing, but I haven't watched enough of his films to check, that some of the actors and the stunts are probably the same, maybe even parts of the sets. So, what does this mean? That it is all a joke to Chaplin? That one policeman is the same as any other? Or that any form of power over other people is wrong, and can never be justified? I don't know. When Chaplin (Schultz) gets mistaken for Hitler (Hynkel), however, this does reveal the meaninglessness of everything (especially as Chaplin's Tramp with his moustache did look like Hitler). I think the whole system of power (and the powerless) is what Chaplin is aiming at deconstructing with simple comedy, if possible.