Charlie Chaplin Meets Darth Vader

Charlie Chaplin is one of my absolute favorite filmmakers. His mastery of emotion through cinematic storytelling is second-to-none. Few realize that he made as many powerful talking pictures as he did, though none more as impacting as The Great Dictator. Released in 1940, it’s about a Jewish barber mistaken for an Adolf Hitler-like dictator. At the end, he gives one of the most rousing speeches in film history, and perhaps the most patriotic since -lFCsYOPs”>Jimmy Stewart’s filibuster in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Someone has taken the great time and care to mash up Chaplin’s rousing speech with footage of Darth Vader and The Clone Wars and it is absolutely brilliant.

After you’ve listened to the Darth Vader version, be sure to watch the Chaplin version. It’s no less rousing, but not as appropriate for this forum on its own. The speech itself gets me teary-eyed. Coupling that with the tragedy of Darth Vader sent me over the edge. Well played, sirs.