I was flipping through channels this morning, and landed on TCM right as the final scene in The Great Dictator was starting. That final speech is great:
We think too much, and feel too little.
More than cleverness, we need kindness.
And so on. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever seen this whole film, all the way through. I’ll have to see if it’s coming up again on TCM and set up my DVR to record it. Either way, that final speech is worth watching and re-watching.
After I originally posted this, a friend pointed me a Roger Ebert article on this film. It provides some necessary context for this movie, both in terms of Chaplin’s career, and the larger historical context. He mentions that the film “comes to a dead end” with this final speech, and that it “deflates the comedy and ends the picture as a lecture.” True enough, I guess, but I kind of like it.