独裁者のレビュー・感想・評価

チャップリンが1人二役を演じたこの作品。

第一次世界の中で作られた作品を踏まえると時代背景もさることながらチャップリンという人物の凄みを感じる作品でした。

世界が貧困や暴力に苦しむ中で少しで笑い変えて希望を見い出そうしている。

最後の演説にチャップリンの全ての気持ちが込めれていると感じました。

希望は、捨ててはいけない。
そこに必ず光があるから

Chaplinが一人二役で演じるのは、独裁者とユダヤ人の床屋。

閣下の名はなんたってAdenoid Hynkel😄
肩書きはフューラーならぬ Phooey of Tomainia。

腹心の部下が、陰のブレーンGarbitschと、八つ当たり対象のHerring。

同志はBacteria国のNapaloni。

侵攻するのはオーストリアならぬOsterlich国。

彫刻の名前は “Venus of Today”と “Thinker of Tomorrow”。

ネーミングのセンスが光っています✨

なんちゃってドイツ語風のヒトラーモノマネがすごく面白い。勢い余って咳き込んだり、興奮し過ぎて豚のような鳴き声が入ったり(漫画なら、きっと鼻から蒸気が出ている感じ😤)。怒鳴りながらHerringのメダルを取り上げて、その流れでボタンまで…っていうシーンには大爆笑🤣

よく聞いていると、デリカテッセン、ホルスタイン、ザワークラウト、バナナ、ピーナッツ、チーズ、ラビオリ、サラミ…、食べ物の単語が多くて憎めない😄 Napaloniの「バクテリア語」は、イタリア語風というよりほぼアメリカ英語😅もっとイタリア語の雰囲気を出して欲しかったかも。
お辞儀は軍の敬礼に対する風刺か…もし日本文化をイジっていたのなら光栄ですね。

ワンシーンのためだけに用意したのかと思われる大掛かりな美術セットが多くて驚きました。

“City Lights”でも出て来た鳥籠の小鳥…。
時代の社会構造に囚われた人間の象徴なのでしょうか…？

床屋のユダヤ人の方は、WWI帰還後に長年記憶喪失だったおじさん。この平凡で善良なおじさんが最後にのたまうスピーチが本当に素晴らしい。Chaplinの並々ならぬ気迫。観て聞いて感動しました。トーキーに乗り気でなかったというChaplinだからこそ、映像と音声による化学反応の威力は計り知れないのだと思い知らされました。

誰も傷付かない笑いではないかも知れませんが…、現在でも独裁者は存在するし、民主主義は崩れかけ危機に晒されています。
本作を1940年に発表したChaplinの先見の明に脱帽です。

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強制収容所が随分人道的に見えます。確かに1930年代はまだマシだったよう。その後の残酷さを当時知っていたら本作は撮れなかったと、Chaplinの自伝に書いてあるとのこと。

以下、名スピーチの一部。

“..... I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's 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 has 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 airplane 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. 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, 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 the 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 is written that 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 that 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!”