2. Summary of the film
A Jewish barber (Played by Charlie
Chaplin) saves the life of a wounded
pilot, Schultz, but loses his memory
through a concussion while saving
Schultz.
Twenty years later, the barber regains
his memory and escapes from his care
home to return to his neighbourhood ,
which is now controlled by soldiers
which are reporting to Schultz, who has
been promoted during Tomainian
regime under the ruthless dictator
Adenoid Hynkel who looks identical to
the barber. (Also played by Charlie
Chaplin).
4. Camera Shots
▪ One of the shots In the clip is when he
he’s looking down, as if he’s
disappointed, it also shows he’s trying to
build on his confidence because at the
start of that scene he says “ he can’t”
which is unusable because barbers are
generally chatty because they meet
different types of people everyday.
▪ Another shot is when Hannah (slave
laborer) gets up and looks towards the
sky and he addresses her and gives her
hope in the speech while she listens
through the radio.
5. Why this scene?
He speaks of freedom from dictators, the goodness in humanity, and a world unity under
democracy, which is the exact opposite of what Hitler said during his speeches . As the
speech progresses, he becomes more emotionally involved and passionate about what he
is saying. His voice rises, he begins gesticulating wildly to show his true passion for what he
is saying and to show it’s not just a speech it’s something he believes in with a passion.
Everything Chaplin is saying becomes more and more relatable because of his delivery, It
makes the viewer think about the era they’re in and how somethings still haven’t changed
after all that’s happened, it makes the viewer question a lot of things even though .
“men who despise you - 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!” – in this you
can see Chaplin was aiming this at Hitler because Hitler was controlling and manipulative
and wasn’t compassionate and didn’t care for different types of people whether they were
rich or poor he didn’t care as long as they weren’t Jewish or were the Aryan stereotype.
Why this scene? because he stood up to one of the most cruel, manipulative and
uncompassionate people of his time and he had the guts to do it and he didn’t care about
himself he considered everyone who was effected by Hitler's regime.
