The very real world horrors perpetuated by the Nazis are not a matter to be trivialized or made into light entertainment, but the resilience of spirit deployed in opposition to these monsters is a fit subject for popular narrative. The films in this series show us several different attitudes toward resistance to authoritarianism, racism, and fraudulent populism in the service of the rich and powerful. From the scathing satire of Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR to John Farrow’s canny use of gangster film tropes in THE HITLER GANG, this series depicts some highlights of the contemporaneous cinematic response to Hitler and his fellow mediocrities.
