Canadian Bacon

This is the first time I have seen a movie featuring Chaplin's voice, and the impact it makes is a great one.

The story follows Chaplin in two roles, as a Jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel. The barber has been unaware of the rise of Hynkel's reign over Tomania (read: Hitler's rise over Germany) because of injuries he suffered in the first war. He comes home from the hospital to find himself being threatened and chased by Hynkel's soldiers, who terrorize the Jewish ghetto. Hynkel, meanwhile, is working on conquering more of the world. Inevitably, that the two look alike leads to an accidental swtich of identities, and this great speech:

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! 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. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite! Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hannah! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hannah! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow! Into the light of hope, into the future! The glorious future, that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!

If you take into consideration that this movie was released in 1940, the speech becomes that much more meaningful. Besides that, Chaplin is still able to infuse this movie with tactful satire and physical comedy so that it is not just a movie that makes a statement, but also another Chaplin classic... one that is the most artful and meaningful to me of all his movies I've seen so far.

Interesting note: Hitler did see this movie--twice.

Anyone want to come to a lan party in Versailles, MO?

Details.

I was searching for speeches that I can download and play for my Public Communications students when I found American Rhetoric's Online Speech Bank. They have a host of recordings of some of the most famous, infamous, and most important speeches in American history (or at least since the invention of the phonograph). It's a wonderful resource for anyone interested in politics and history.

Some of the speeches are only available in streaming audio, but there are many available for download in mp3 format. Just selecting the ones I was interested in, I easily found over thirty hours of material. Most of them are recorded in low bitrates, which means they don't even take up much space on my iPod. Here are a few gems I'm particularly happy about finding:

Martin Luther King speaking against the Vietnam War. Most of King's speeches are not available for download, but I'm very happy this one is.

Robert F. Kennedy speaking the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. It's very moving to listen to the crowd's reaction upon hearing the news for the first time.

Barbara Lee opposing Congress's resolution to invade Afghanistan. She was the only person in Congress to take this unpopular stand. I admire her resolve as well as her reasons for doing this.

And just for kicks:
Michael Moore's Oscar acceptance speech. It's interesting to hear how much he was booed considering what we know now and how public opinion has shifted.

I dream of destroying everyone.

No....I dream of destroying everyone who thinks that they can change themselves forever because of an emotional high. I will laugh histerically when you fall down.

I mean, no you deserve it.

With that being said, I don't know what I am saying at all. Call me and come over to my place and punch me you little piece of kaka.

Why is it that I am so bent on destruction and destroying. I have to be at work in less than 8 hours.

Declare your everlasting love for me.

It breaks if you don't force it. It breaks if you don't try.

Why is it that no one trys when it comes to me?