Slapstick Diplomacy: Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and Latin American Theatres of War

• Autores: Willie Hiatt
• Localización: Journal of Latin American Studies, ISSN 0022-216X, ISSN-e 1469-767X, Vol. 50, Nº. 4, 2018, págs. 777-803
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X18000366
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen
  • español

    El nuevo filme de Charles Chaplin El Gran Dictador fue recibido con controversia e intriga cuando arribó a los cines latinoamericanos a principios de 1941 Con gas lacrimógeno, saludos nazis e insultos antisemíticos, las facciones a favor del Eje desde México hasta Argentina protestaron contra la ridiculización de Adolfo Hitler y Benito Mussolini de parte de la estrella de cine. En un importante momento de la política del Buen Vecino, la circulación y exhibición tumultuosa de la película en Latinoamérica expuso grietas en la solidaridad del hemisferio al subvertir los esfuerzos de EEUU de reclutar aliados en la región y amenazó el apoyo del presidente Roosevelt a la intervención en Europa. En el hemisferio sur, acalorados debates públicos sobre la película pusieron un reflector sobre los impulsos antidemocráticos de algunos líderes y generaron preguntas sobre la constitucionalidad al interior de sociedades desiguales. Este artículo va más allá de la película como texto para examinarla también como un agente y objeto cultural que expuso los límites del imperialismo estadounidense y las estrategias de resistencia latinoamericanas de manera más amplia.

  • English

    Controversy and intrigue greeted Charlie Chaplin’s new film, The Great Dictator, when it arrived in Latin American theatres in early 1941. With tear gas, Nazi salutes and anti-Semitic insults, pro-Axis factions from Mexico to Argentina protested against the Hollywood star’s ridicule of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. At an important Good Neighbour moment, the film’s tumultuous Latin American circulation and exhibition exposed fault lines in hemispheric solidarity by subverting US efforts to recruit allies in the region and threatened President Roosevelt’s support for European intervention at home. Down south, heated public debates over the film trained a harsh light on Latin American leaders’ own anti-democratic impulses and raised questions about constitutionality within unequal societies. This articlemoves beyond film as text to examine the Chaplin picture as a cultural object and agent that exposed the limits of US imperialism and Latin American resistance strategies more broadly

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