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The Great Dictator: The Chaplin Collection
Charlie Chaplin's lacerating lampoon of Adolf Hitler — whose armies were jackbooting across Europe and the Jews during the film's production — gets a splendid two-disc treatment as part of MK2 and Warner's The Chaplin Collection. Besides the film's hysterically funny sendup of both Der Fuhrer and Mussolini, we get the dictator's sublime dance with a balloon painted to represent the whole world, one of cinema's all-time great scenes. The DVD delivers excellent audio and visual restoration (the 5.1 audio remix is a stunner) plus a trove of supplements. A documentary The Tramp and the Dictator superbly chronicles the connections between the most-loved and the most-hated men in the world, whose lives intersected with The Great Dictator. Also on hand are a cache of color film shot on set by Chaplin's brother, Sydney; the clip Charlie the Barber from a 1919 short; an excerpt from Monsieur Verdoux; and a gallery of film posters. Dual-chambered keep-case.
—Mark Bourne
