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Critical analysis of Charlie Chaplin
How did Chaplin use his films for communication
Critical analysis of Charlie Chaplin
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The Great Dictator was written, directed and produced by Charlie Chaplin and released on October 15, 1940. The film was released as a satire of Hitler and the Nazi regime with the intent to persuade the target audience to fight against human inequality and injustices that were being committed against victims of Nazi persecution. The Great Dictator was released during a historical period when the United States and the United Kingdom were still placating and appeasing Hitler to avoid the outbreak of another World War. This essay analyses the persuasive techniques of character, semiotics and repetition, as well as the effective use of the pathos appeal throughout the final speech at the end of the film. This is when Chaplin’s main character ‘the Barber’ poses as ‘the Dictator’, and addresses two target audiences: the fictional ‘Tomanian’ audience, and viewers of the actual film.
Chaplin uses character arguments to portray the ideology that any person or group of people have the power to change history for the better or worse. This is clearly evident when the Dictator states, “Not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power”. Chaplin enforces this ideology by acting as the two main characters within the film: ‘the Barber’ who is a Jewish war hero with amnesia, and ‘the Dictator’ who speaks with German-type linguistics, is identified as of ‘Tomanian’ descendant and aspires to ‘conquer’ the world. However, both the Barber and the Dictator played by Chaplin shows they are essentially the same character throughout the entire film, reiterating the ideology that all men are equal and have the power to cause change.
Barthes’ theory of semiotics is employed because the target audiences immediately ident...
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... he effectively uses of phrases such as, “We think too much and feel too little”, which invokes remorse and conviction. When the audience is faced with this discourse and judgment they are persuaded to attempt to find ways to fix it.
The Great Dictator’s speech uses persuasive techniques to convince the target audience to believe that the “free and beautiful” way of life that is inherent in humans has been overtaken by violence and greed. Chaplin calls the audience to action and persuasively encourages a change in society’s behaviour to “Fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance”. Chaplin’s effective use of character, semiotics and repetition intentionally persuades the target audience both in the film and those viewing the film to “unite” and be kind to each other for the prosperity of the human race.
The presence of an overwhelming and influential body of government, dictating the individuals of contextual society, may potentially lead to the thoughts and actions that oppose the ruling party. Through the exploration of Fritz Lang’s expressionist film, Metropolis (1927), and George Orwell’s politically satirical novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948), the implications of an autocratic government upon the individuals of society are revealed. Lang’s expressionist film delves into the many issues faced by the Weimar Republic of Germany following the “War to end all wars” (Wells, 1914), in which the disparity between the upper and lower classes became distinctively apparent as a result of the ruling party’s capitalistic desires. Conversely, Orwell’s,
Even from a brief summary such as this, one can tell that Mel Brooks associates himself with comedical films that would categorize as satire and/or parody. Seeing that Brooks was born Jewish and that he has elements of “Hitlerism” in his works, you can begin to see the connection with what may...
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It reminds the audience that while no one could likely ever be as evil as Hitler, history has a way of repeating itself. We are urged to pick our leaders carefully, to take interest in politics and choose are affiliations well. Most importantly, Tony Kushner is trying to call us to action in this play. He urges each and every audience member to avoid the pit falls of complacency as Agnes succumbs to in the play. To take no stance at all is not to be untouched, as Agnes had seen many of her friends leave as a result, but to remain stagnant, to be haunted by your fears and regrets, and to die with no one to remember you. Tony Kushner’s warning serves equally well, whether you are from 1930’s Berlin or 1980’s New York, or even if you are from 2016 Elizabethtown
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The ethical concepts of 1940’s era ‘good and evil’ are well portrayed in Casablanca. Evil is not only portrayed by the actors who played the Nazi soldiers but it can also be felt in the mind of the viewer. One must consider the wartime mindset of the American people when the movie was made and the implications that filled the set. During the 1940’s, the United States was still a fairly Christian nation with moral character that was based solely on religious beliefs. Graphic and seductive scenes that would be included in the making of Casablanca were omitted so as not to offend the viewers or their moral standards. In order to abide to the Divine Command Theory, scenes that involved the actual act of killin...
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Political communication—communication with a political purpose about human interaction—takes many different forms including novels, poetry, music, television, and film, which all have their distinct advantages and disadvantages in communicating with the public. Although some political communication intends to enact or drive social changes, some political communication seeks to maintain the status quo. The film medium, which is the subject of this paper, has a much broader mass appeal than other medias and often changes the viewer’s original beliefs and perceptions when he or she experiences over an hour straight of visual indoctrination of only one view.
In The Conformist, Bertolucci’s sheds light on complex issues such as psychological effects of fascism and why one might conform to such a government. The film follows the complicated character of Marcello, a homosexual man with a traumatic homosexual experience in his childhood, which results in him becoming ashamed of his sexuality and begins to fear being shunned by society for it. Marcello deals with this shame by shutting down any homosexual desire he may have and becomes his idealized figure of normal; which at this time was a loyal and disciplined Fascist. Marcello learns how to conform perfectly by becoming a Fascist spy, but two significant people in Marcello’s life disrupt his path to becoming ‘normal’.
Political scientists have continually searched for methods that explain presidential power and success derived from using that power effectively. Five different approaches have been argued including the legal approach, presidential roles approach, Neustadtian approach, institutional approach, and presidential decision-making approach. The legal approach says that all power is derived from a legal authority (U.S. Constitution). The presidential roles approach contends that a president’s success is derived from balancing their role as head of state and head of government. The Neustadtian approach contends that “presidential power is the power to persuade“ (Neustadt, p. 11). The institutional approach contends that political climate and institutional relations are what determines presidential power. The last approach, decision-making, provides a more psychological outlook that delves into background, management styles, and psychological dispositions to determine where a president’s idea of power comes from. From all of these, it is essential to study one at a time in order to analyze the major components of each approach for major strengths and weaknesses.
To this day it remains incomprehensible to justify a sensible account for the uprising of the Nazi Movement. It goes without saying that the unexpectedness of a mass genocide carried out for that long must have advanced through brilliant tactics implemented by a strategic leader, with a promising policy. Adolf Hitler, a soldier in the First World War himself represents the intolerant dictator of the Nazi movement, and gains his triumph by arousing Germany from its devastated state following the negative ramifications of the war. Germany, “foolishly gambled away” by communists and Jews according to Hitler in his chronicle Mein Kampf, praises the Nazi Party due to its pact to provide order, racial purity, education, economic stability, and further benefits for the state (Hitler, 2.6). Albert Speer, who worked closely under Hitler reveals in his memoir Inside the Third Reich that the Führer “was tempestuously hailed by his numerous followers,” highlighting the appreciation from the German population in response to his project of rejuvenating their state (Speer, 15). The effectiveness of Hitler’s propaganda clearly served its purpose in distracting the public from suspecting the genuine intentions behind his plan, supported by Albert Camus’ insight in The Plague that the “townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences”(Camus, 37). In this sense “humanists” represent those who perceive all people with virtue and pureness, but the anti-humanist expression in the metaphor shows the blind-sidedness of such German citizens in identifying cruel things in the world, or Hitler. When the corruption within Nazism does receive notice, Hitler at that point given h...
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (4). This is an example of a glittering generalities technique where an emotionally appealing phrase with powerful words is used to evoke emotions. As an example, the song “doublespeak” from Thrice that also deals with the concept of doublethink, describes a genocidal society where killing innocent people who are rebelling for their rights is common and in order for them to remain sane, they would rather hold their silence.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
“The Great Dictator”, an elegant speech composed by the magnificent Charlie Chaplin, was a particularly moving one that has gained widespread recognition and praise since it was given back in the 1940s. On the surface, it appears as if Chaplin is directing soldiers to think for themselves and to break away from dictators’ indoctrination, as “dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!” is a line that is reprehended throughout the speech. Further analysis of Chaplin’s speech seems to reveal, however, that he rather wants the soldiers to break away from the deeper aspect of tyranny that has been embedded within them, essentially controlling them. Chaplin wants the audience to take action and think for themselves; to help one another and to save humanity from war using three key rhetorical tools: ethos, organization and pathos.
Throughout the 1920s, Hitler gave speeches stating all the problems that Germany had was because of the Jews and Communists within the country. His rampant and passionate speeches took the hearts of young, economically disadvantaged Germans that were affected by the destructive aftermath of the First World War. In 1923, Hitler and his followers attempted a “putsch”, or coup d’état, on the Bavari...