Frame Study : 'The Great Dictator'

Thinking Activity:- 'The Great Dictator'

Hello Readers! This blog is in response to the Thinking Activity which is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English, MKBU. In this blog I am dealing with the Frame Study of Charlie Chaplin's Movie The Great Dictator. 

Frame Study:-

A Frame is a single image of Film. A frame study is the study or understanding of the frame by a camera which is describing or indicating a lot of things to actually understand the meaning behind the fixed camera image.

The Great Dictator:-

The Great Dictator is an American anti-war political satire and black comedy film. Which is directed, produced, scored and starring by British comedian Charlie Chaplin. Having been the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films. Chaplin made this his first true sound film. Chaplin's film advanced the expression of very strong disapproval of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Fascism, anti-Semitism and the Nazis. The Great Dictator Conveys Chaplin's view that people must rise up against dictatorship and unite in peace. It was released in 1940.

Frame 1 

This first frame suggests the Ending of the first world war. The period of madness and lack of humanity. This frame is beginning of the movie which displayed condition on the border, fight with the heavy weapons, bombs. It suggests the malevolence of machines, the horror of war, and the senselessness of destruction. So we can say that the 20th century was time of war and weapons.

Frame 2 Dictatorship 

This frame suggests the Hitlar playing with the world. It shows the Dictatorship. Hynkel playing with the balloon. Dictatorship stays at the centre of this film because it is based on the decision taken by a leader to keep his personal ego. They drill them, diet them and treat them like Cattle and use them as cannon fodder. The Dictators are unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. They begin to believe that he is the only one who can be the dictator of the whole world. This frame suggests that "How Dictators play with the people or with the peace of the world".

Frame 3 

This frame suggests the mindset of a political leader or Dictator that for photos and love from the public. The public feels the leader is so lovely and caring towards children as kind hearted humans are easily attracted towards the children. This kind of thing we see in the contemporary time, also the political leaders playing with other children to show themselves as emotional and kind.

Frame 4 The Final Speech 

 

This frame is all about the final speech in the movie given  by the barber. He  is the voice of Charlie Chaplin himself. Here are Some lines from the movie - 'The Great Dictator':-

You are not Machines!

You are not Cattle!

You are men!

You have the love of humanity in your hearts!

You don't hate!

Only the unloved hate - the unloved

And the unnatural!

Probably the most famous sequence of "The Great Dictator" is the 5 minute speech that concludes the film. Here Chaplin drops his comic mask and speaks directly to the world, conveying his view that people must rise up against dictators and unite in peace.

So we can say that both the movies of Charlie Chaplin's play a very vital role in the understanding about the economic and social condition of the 20th century. 

( Click here ) For the understanding about Second Frame study of 'The Modern Times'.

Frame: 5

Words: 557

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