Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (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

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

A true masterpiece

This movie is a true masterpiece. I don't understand anyone that gives it less than 4 stars. I've watched this movie at least 6 times and I get something new out of it every single time. And, by the way, I usually hate watching any movie more than once. George C. Scott and Peter Sellers are dynamite, as is the rest of the cast. Definitely one of the 10 best movies of all time. July 27, 2008

what can you say!

I can only add my kudos to this cult timepiece. Title could have been "It's a mad, mad world"! Peter Sellers and George C Scott give masterful performances. No wonder that this film has a cult following all over the globe! July 20, 2008

One of the worst films I have ever seen.

Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

I've always found it somewhat amusing that when it comes to Stanley Kubrick's movies, I dovetail almost exactly with everyone else I know. If you ask Kubrick fans what their favorite Kubrick films are, you will get the almost universal answer of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Strangelove. I finally saw the former all the way through for the first time a couple of months ago, and it was just as bad as I figured it would be from the pieces I'd seen. Now, I've seen the latter, which I again assumed would be terrible based on what I'd seen of it; unlike 2001, though, in this case I'd actually underestimated how thoroughly horrible this movie is. (And, for the record, of the Kubrick movies I've seen-- I'm still missing a few-- my two favorites are, by far, The Killing and Lolita.)

Critics back when it came out, of course, immediately compared it to Fail-Safe, the other 1964 film about the War Room. It was inevitable, really. The main difference between the two films is that Fail-Safe plays it straight and goes for tension, while Dr. Strangelove goes for satire. The biggest problem is that the satire just isn't funny. It's the same tired old antiwar message crap we've heard a million times before. There's no thought given to characters or plot at all; it all exists for the sole purpose of poking fun at anyone who's not a hard-line antiwar activist. (Reportedly, Peter George, upon whose novel the film is based, despised it-- probably for that reason.) There is no attempt at subtlety here, no attempt at artistry. There are many attempts at humor; all of them fail. Now, I grant you, they might actually be hilarious, but I couldn't tell; I was too busy reeling from getting hit in the head with the antiwar hammer over and over again.

This is the big difference between the infinitely superior Fail-Safe and this pile of garbage; Fail-Safe actually hands the viewer a worthwhile story, characters for whom the viewer is capable of feeling sympathy/antipathy, plot development, the works. In other words, it's actually a movie rather than a collection of unfunny jokes around a theme. Dr. Strangelove is, in no uncertain terms, one of the worst movies I have ever had the displeasure of sitting all the way through. It may not be the worst, but it's certainly in the top five. (zero)

July 18, 2008

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