Final Speech from ‘The Great Dictator’
TRANSCEND VIDEOS, 18 Jan 2021
Charlie Chaplin – TRANSCEND Media Service
Inspirational speech given by silent-movies comedian Charlie Chaplin in his celebrated film, The Great Dictator.
“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…”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibmcsEGLKo
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, The Tramp, and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry.
Tags: Charlie Chaplin
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 18 Jan 2021.
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The Great Dictator and the final speech cited above has been a guiding light for me since I saw the film first in 1970. The line from the speech I most recall is, “don’t give yourselves to brutes…” To me that says live for love and community, not for hate and cruelty. This is a tall order for us all in a pandemic and climate emergency, but we must.
I am glad to see this at the TMS site! I have been aware of the speech for decades and shared it on my FB page and at different FB Groups.
We need many more artists to be speaking out powerfully, courageously, against the injustices, the absurdities and horrors of modern life!
The constant analysis of “direct” and “structural” violence is certainly important…. But, we need to “transcend” primarily academic, pedagogical and pedantic approaches. Our mass media have conditioned our “masses” to accept “cultural violence” with comic books peddled to children, with silly paperback novels, newspapers and magazines, with films and music for generations.
Chaplin was no saint, but he did speak out against the insanity of war, and later, against the House Un-American Activities Committee–the “cancel culture” arm of government back in the 1950s! We are in perilous times now: a Pandemic threatening our biological lives; Big-Tech-Social Media-Academic elitism censoring news and vital information. Let us reflect on the hard-earned wisdom of the past; let us imagine a better world to come.