The Great Dictator | 100 Movies Bucket List

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Next up for the bucket list was a film that I hadn't heard of.

I'm familiar with Charlie Chaplin, but moreso for his silent films than for anything else, so I didn't really have any idea what this film would be about.

And once I did look up the premise, it wasn't one that I was particularly excited to see.

I knew that it probably wouldn't be one of my favourites, so it wasn't a surprise that I didn't love it.

For a start, as a fan of some of Chaplin's other movies, this movie felt very different, which caught me a bit off guard

I appreciated the satire, but it might just be that it isn't as funny for a modern audience, or maybe that it's just not my kind of humour, but a lot of it didn't work for me.

It also felt way longer than it needed to be. The runtime itself wasn't a problem as it's just over 2 hours, but a lot of the scenes felt like they could have been shorter.

The themes of the film were very ambitious for when it was made. Even in today's day and age there might be some eyebrows raised if this film were new.

Speaking generally about the genre, especially when up against the other classic movies in the list, comedy and satire are wholly underappreciated, so I'm really glad that these genres haven't been forgotten about.

So while this film wasn't one I liked, I am glad I've seen it!



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