Review of The Tramp and the Dictator

" . . . who did not want Peace," after World War Two, such as the American Legion, acclaimed writer Ray Bradbury says near the end of THE TRAMP AND THE DICTATOR, a nearly hour-long Criterion documentary on Charlie Chaplin's most important film, THE GREAT DICTATOR. Though this piece is as good as far as it goes, many viewers--such as myself--will want to do follow-up research about WHY Chaplin became banned from America despite making this movie, which spelled the beginning of the end of the Axis, Hitler, and Mussolini. What they will discover is that America was as nearly divided in the 1920s and 1930s as it is Today. Armies of World War I vets marched in West Virginia, shooting it out with the stooges of the Fascist Mine Managers. Though most of Hollywood was Anti-Hitler, an eventually-triumphant subset led by director John Ford and his protégée, the notorious draft dodger John Wayne, backed the Fascists. Just as the Rich People's Party specializes in Voter Suppression, Unconstitutional Supreme Court Jiggering, and Promotion of Wealth Disparity Today, so too did this Cabal led by Ford and Wayne target Chaplin and all the other Champions of Freedom before the final A-Bomb echoes of WWII had died away. Too bad Criterion did not highlight this more here.