Wakeup: A Speech For Humanity

Fan-fcking-tastic! A must see.

Poor Charlie, no one can ever wear that style of moustache again.

I've seen many of his silent movies, but hadn't seen that one before. Anyone know the name?

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

Bad form to reply to my own post - but I found it. (On a Chinese website, no less!)<p> His words, for those on dialup:<br> "The Great Dictator" <p> <blockquote> (Charlie Chaplin): 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.<p> 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.<p> 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.<p> 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.<p> 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.<p> 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.<p> Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite! </blockquote> <p>---<br>The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.<br />

Thanks for the transcript. Just shows how little things have changed that the words are just a relevent tody, perhaps more so.

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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp

He just didn't want to admit that 'dictatorship' has built the highest standard of living ever enjoyed by mankind. It's brought freedom and democracy to millions!

History has proved you wrong, Charlie!!!

(yes...I am being ironic...and YES his speech at the end is probably the REAL reason few people have ever gotten to see "The Great Dictator" in spite of 70 years of Freedom©! -- sorta ironic...the film was as widely suppressed in the US as it was in Germany...in one instance, the suppression was by state fiat and in the other by the 'dictators' who either didn't want that commie shit in THEIR movie theaters or the usual, 'there is no market for this type of film' free market censorship.)

Observers of real history will recall that Mr. Chaplin's problems as an artist wasn't with the Nazis, but with the moral police/dictators of America who suddenly realized that all those movies they loved and honoured (Gold Rush, City Lights, etc) were class-based dissections articulating socialist ideas and not 'feelgood' Old Testament lite meditations on greed and charity, common in America cinema at the time. (Pabst, Vidor, Griffin)

It's only when Chaplin starts 'speaking' and begins to clarify his ideas, that he became an unPerson and effectively exiled to make way for Busby Berkeley musicals.

If you notice just after the NEXT world war, US film/propaganda re-deployed again -- out went Noir and critical 'social' films and in came epic Old Testament morality plays. In many cases, they were remakes of the same films produced in the silent era.

Yes...his speech is topical and Hollywood was never liberal.