If I had done this 30 Day Challenge in 30 consecutive days when I began it two years ago last month, I would not have named this film because it had not come out yet. When Jojo Rabbit was released back in October 2019, I was curious about it. Then I heard comparisons to Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, and I was all in on wanting to see it!
One thing that both films tackle is the absurdity of Nazism. In different ways.
And as Taika Waititi says in his tweet below: “what better way to insult Hitler than having him portrayed by a Polynesian Jew?”
Chaplin had one set of problems with Hitler, Waititi had another. If you were to make a Venn diagram, both with a lot of overlap. And both played satires of Hitler. And both were brilliant at it.
Both deal with facing a prejudice by a character having prejudices, then meeting someone who having real encounters with people who they were taught were no good, though in Jojo it is more prominent. In The Great Dictator, the Jewish Barber saves Schultz, a Tomanian (German) officer, during The Great War. Later, even after Schultz finds out the man who saved him was not Aryan but Jewish, he orders no one to be assaulted in the Jewish ghetto.
Similarly, in Jojo Rabbit, when Jojo meets the girl, he doesn’t like her because she’s Jewish, but after days go by and they talk, he begins to doubt his prejudice and likes her.
Well, it’s an okay comparison. Not exactly the same, but similar.
Another similar thing is that both films were nominated for Oscars, including Best Picture. But Jojo won one, for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Reviews and Discussions
Below is one of my favorite YouTuber movie reviewers, Jeremy Jahns, as he talks about what he thought of it.
The German version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” (German version also sung by Bowie) is used in both the trailer and the end of the movie. One of Chaplin’s sons, Eugene Chaplin, was a assistant engineer for the regular English-sung album. Eugene’s son Spencer interviewed him on his Chaplin Talks podcast, and Spencer brought that up:
One thing I should have added in my last post was the Jewish connection with Spock. I had know for a while that both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were Jewish. But what I found out a few days ago was where the Vulcan salute came from. I was curious and did a search on YouTube. I could tell you about it, but Nimoy does a much better job:
