Dr Strangelove (1964)

Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious bodily fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so-called "Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S. president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart. Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr. Strangelove; George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose presidential advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about "acceptable losses." With dialogue ("You can't fight here! This is the war room!") and images (Slim Pickens's character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of our cultural vocabulary, Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics' lists of the all-time best. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com essential video

An interesting film...

This comedy is about the dangers of our nuclear age. Doctor Strangelove is a spoof about the insanity produced by those who concentrate in seeking power, for power corrupts and absolute power has a tendency to corrupt absolutely.

General Jack D. Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden, is after purity of bodily fluids and wants to rid the world of Communism, therefore he orders a squadron of bombers to penetrate Russian soil and eliminate key places to destroy this enemy of the free world.

The President of the United States, played by Peter Sellers, who by the way, plays several roles during this film, from the war room, gets involved in negotiations for peace, and the give and take is simply... hilarious. Simply love when he says: "you can't fight in the war room, that behavior is unacceptable in the war room." Peter Sellers is also the British soldier who attempts to prevent the bombing of Russia, and the bomb-maker, the... Strange-love Doctor.

We realize that the movie must have been seen as a daring move during its release, but today, we have gone beyond the fear of making the bomb, to the realization that at anytime... we are in danger of taking weapons to the point of self-destruction.

An interesting film. October 19, 2008

Hilarious and Historical

Historical dark comedy about Cold-War-Era America and the Age of the Atom. Fantastic film... a must own. October 3, 2008

Truth within humor is always a scary thing...

In this day and age, during these times of political uncertainty, a black comedy such as `Dr. Strangelove' is a welcome distraction. It takes all of our fears about what our own society may come to and it throws it in our face with enough humor (scarily realistic humor) that we find ourselves laughing at what could possibly be our eventual future. Stanley Kubrick has been my favorite director for some time now, and `Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' is quite possibly his finest film (I still have a warm and fuzzy place in my heart for the anti-warm and fizzy movie known as `A Clockwork Orange')

The film centers around panic in the white house when General Jack D. Ripper acts on his own accord to eradicate Communism by launching a squadron of B-52 bombers over the Soviet Union. When the Soviet reacts by threatening to use their Doomsday Device the President finds himself in the middle of heated debate on how to handle the current crisis.

The film is littered with jabs at politics in general, with the country's fascination with war and the crazy ideas floating around the heads of the men in power. Taking a more subtle approach to the films humor, Kubrick's gem of a film fairs much greater than most other parodies like `Blazing Saddles' (I need to stop hating on that film) for it actually manages to make all of its jokes work. The film is genuinely hilarious, but it never sacrifices its intelligence for a quick laugh.

Kubrick has a wonderful bedmate in Peter Sellers, who previously worked with Kubrick on the equally subtle yet effective comedy `Lolita'. Sellers takes on three separate roles in this film; the President, Captian Lionel Mandrake and the bomb maker Dr. Strangelove. He dominates this film by creating three completely different characters with different ideals and even accents, and he nails each one. He's aided by the hilarious George C. Scott (who makes those `war room' scenes unforgettable) and Sterling Haydem, who captures the realness of human insanity. These actors create such real, yet exaggerated characters that give the film such authenticity within its humor.

The scary thing about `Dr. Strangelove' is that, in all honesty, it's probably not that far fetched. Today more so than ever the general public has a pretty good idea of just how manipulative and chaotic our world leaders really are, so when watching a supposed comedy like `Dr. Strangelove' it becomes more and more dramatic as we put the pieces together. I remember feeling the same way when watching the more recent `Wag the Dog', another political comedy. They always say that reality makes for the best comedy because real life is almost always unbelievable; and this film is a real case-in-point, for it is as funny as it is scary.

In other words; it's funny cuz' it's true. September 30, 2008

The Big Board and Doomsday

Imagine a film where Colonel "King" Kong (Slim Pickens) tells his B-52 crew, "Well boys, this is it. Nuclear combat toe to toe with the Rooskies!" Sterling Hayden as Gen. Jack D. Ripper who -- fearing contaminating his bloody fluids -- launches a nuclear attack on Russia. George C. Scott as Gen. "Buck" Turgison: "I'm not saying we're not going to get our hair mussed. Ten million casualties, twenty million tops." Then there is Peter Sellers in several roles: an RAF Liasion officer, the President of the United States and Dr. Strangelove -- a former Nazi scientist, crippled with an arm that gives an involuntary "Seig Heil" nazi salute. A brilliant dark satire from Stanley Kubrick (coming in the wake of being fired from the Brando western ONE-EYED JACKS and directing the Kirk Douglas epic SPARTACUS). From this film onward all of Kubricks successive movies (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BARRY LYNDON, FULL METAL JACKET & EYES WIDE SHUT) would all be distinct provoking. Look for the first screen appearence of James Earl Jones as a crewmember on Col. Kong's B-52. August 21, 2008

Classic Movie

This collection is truly a classic movie from Kubrick. Of interest will be the special disc that has been added. July 29, 2008

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