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OCTOBER Film Of The Month Club - THE GREAT DICTATOR and DOWNFALL

post #1 of 9
9/29/10 at 3:48pm
Thread Starter 
Almost finished with the year, just 3 more of these little get togethers to go.

October we are going to explore the 2 sides of Hitler. How film portrayed him realistically and how they made fun of him.

First, Charlie Chaplin will start us off with The Great Dictator , one of his most famous masterpieces.

Then, used in countless and mostly irritating internet parodies, comes Downfall from Germany. And Bruno Ganz's incredible performance.

Feel free to throw in your favorite Hitler portrayals on film as well!

Watch the films, talk about them.
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post #2 of 9
9/29/10 at 4:34pm
Called it! To myself, but still.
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post #3 of 9
9/29/10 at 10:36pm
That's quite the pair. I'm still amazed Chaplin made The Great Dictator years before the US entered WWII.

And I love the story that Hitler has a private viewing, watched it in complete silence and then immediately asked the projectionist to play it again.

I'd hate to be the projectionist in that case. To laugh or not to laugh? Must have been torture.

The speech at the end is still heart stirring. It's pretty incredibly, and surprisingly relevant.
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post #4 of 9
9/30/10 at 8:01pm
Nice, Tati.
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post #5 of 9
10/1/10 at 7:02pm
Der Fuhrer equals Der Fun in October.
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post #6 of 9
10/1/10 at 10:53pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, it's october. Get on it.
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post #7 of 9
10/5/10 at 12:43am
Hey. I had more films about Hitler than this. I do need to rewatch The Great Dictator.
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post #8 of 9
10/5/10 at 1:03am
Thread Starter 
I JUST finished watching Downfall. I'm too tired.
Tomorrow i'll post my comments.

Damn impressive film!
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post #9 of 9
10/5/10 at 4:52pm
Thread Starter 
And here I am!

Besides being utterly impressed by all the performances, with the shining star being Bruno Ganz. I've never met Hitler, so i can't compare him. But from seen in news and film footage, he seems spot on. And he really plays on the madness of the last days and his both physical and mental breakdown. The rest of the cast that play his Generals / advisors are also perfect. Their blind devotion to the figure of the Fuhrer and the cause was greatly performed. Sickening to say the least.

It was also very interesting to see the impact on the Berlin population that the war and those final days had. Both sides, the ones that wanted to give up and the ones that wanted to go out fighting till the end. And how it tore them apart.

The small battle scenes were also very realistically portrayed and added a lot to the story. As someone who loves historical movies but knows very little of actual history, i loved it.

And it has been said that this movie "humanized" Adolf Hitler. I disagree. I'd go as far as to say it makes him much more detached from humanity and gives us a peek into his god complex and madness. The fact that he didn't care about the people or the civilians. That they all deserved to die for the military to survive and all.

Btw, Nazi's were the all time sons of bitches, but their uniforms were the coolest ever.
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