The Great Dictator noted Chaplin's use of Wagner's "Lohengrin" prelude when Hynckel dances with the globe-balloon. Chaplin repeated use of the "Lohengrin" prelude near the conclusion, when the exiled Hannah listens to the Jewish barber's speech celebrating democracy and freedom. The music is interrupted during the dictator's dance but it is heard to complete and climax in the barber's pro-democracy speech. Commenting on this, Lutz Peter Koepnick writes in 2002, Chaplin's film was released nine months after Hollywood's first parody of Hitler, the short subject "You Nazty Spy!" by the Three Stooges, which premiered in January 1940. Chaplin had been planning his feature-length
The Great Dictator holds a 92% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 37 reviews, three of which are negative. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: A digitally restored version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection in May 2011. The extras feature color production footage shot by Chaplin's half-brother Sydney, deleted barbershop sequence from Chaplin's 1919 film "Sunnyside", barbershop sequence from Sydney Chaplin's 1921 film "King, Queen, Joker", a visual essay by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance titled "The Clown Turns Prophet", and "The Tramp and the Dictator"