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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Holiday Message From The Great Dictator...
Just periodically I like to watch this, Chaplin's presentation of the antithesis of dictators, his dig at Hitler. From a story at Zero Hedge,...here.
In September 1939, six days after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, Charlie Chaplin began filming one of his most epic films ever and the first talkie for the silent film star. It was a courageous project - the Great Dictator directly poked fun at Adolf Hitler.
This did not win Chaplin any friends in Washington who were keen to maintain official neutrality. And he paid dearly for it; the Great Dictator was the beginning of an entire decade of turbulent trouble between Chaplin and the US government.
FBI director J Edgar Hoover opened a file on Chaplin and launched a smear campaign to tarnish his public image. The mainstream media quickly jumped on board, accusing Chaplin of being a communist sympathizer.
In his autobiography, Chaplin sums up his troubles with the US government as follows:
My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a nonconformist. Although I am not a Communist, I refused to fall in line by hating them. . . Secondly I was opposed to the Committee on Un-American Activities a dishonest phrase to begin with, elastic enough to wrap around the throat and strangle the voice of any American citizen whose honest opinion is a minority one.
...
It's like we are going back in time, some days...
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A Holiday Message From The Great Dictator... (Original Post)
jtuck004
Dec 2013
OP
The Blue Flower
(5,444 posts)1. A film of amazing courage and artistry
Chaplin was a gift to humanity.
babylonsister
(171,079 posts)3. Thanks for this; the things you learn on DU!
And we're not going back, no way.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)4. >the things you learn on DU! < I agree! n/t
Aerows
(39,961 posts)5. Zero Hedge has it's moments
It's a great blog. Full of cynical folks, but occasionally has brilliance
mountain grammy
(26,642 posts)6. Thank you for a story I didn't know about someone I've always admired.
I love Chaplin's work, my mom worshiped him. Now I know why.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)7. I didn't know it either. Thousands of these stories I find that someone, somewhere, made
a decision not to tell us about - and it changes your thinking.
Makes me wonder if it was intentional...
progressoid
(49,992 posts)8. And he hardly blinks.