ecn71270's Full Review: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying...
"I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."
This is the motivation given by a deranged anti-Communist general named Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) for launching a sneak attack on the "Russkies" in DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, director Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 political satire about the insanity of war--in this case, the ULTIMATE war. Never before had a major filmmaker dared to be so ruthless in his view about the world. And because this film came out only a few months after America suffered the loss of a president, it spawned a wild firestorm of controversy. The film itself, however, remains a landmark in American cinema.
The sneak attack is being carried out by American bombers hovering in the skies surrounding the Soviet Union, one of which is captained by a redneck patriot of a cowboy (Slim Pickens). Attempts are being made by President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) in the Pentagon War Room, and by Ripper's executive officer Lionel Mandrake (Sellers again) to stop the bombers from carrying out their goal. These attempts take on added dimension when the existence of a Doomsday device inside Russia is revealed. Giving the president advice is ex-Nazi and nuclear weapons expert Dr. Strangelove (Sellers, in a third role).
All the attacking bombers are bought down by Russian missile launches, except for Pickens', which is partly disabled but still flying and aiming for a target. As the bomb is released, Pickens rides it like a cowboy at a rodeo towards his own patriotic redneck Doomsday. The final scenes of the Doomsday devices destroying the world is accompanied by the strains of Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again."
Buoyed by Sellers' superb triple performances, as well as those of Hayden and George C. Scott (as yet another gung-ho, anti-Commie general), DOCTOR STRANGELOVE remains the chilling satire that it is not because it delivers sight-gags or belly laughs, but because it shows politicians and generals being frighteningly good at doing their jobs. It says that the people who are in the best position to stop nuclear war from happening are also the same ones willing to have one START up in the first place. The straight-faced way the actors bring this story to life continues to amaze. Of the film's many memorable moments and lines, one of the best comes from a by-the-book colonel (Keenan Wynn) who gives Mandrake money by blowing a Coke machine to bits and then telling him "You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company."
Kubrick also integrates a new kind of fear that was starting to crop up in the 1960s--the fear of rapidly expanding technology (in this case, the Doomsday device) that we are either unwilling or unable to control. This theme would show up in many later movies, including WESTWORLD, JURASSIC PARK, and, of course, in Kubrick's next film, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (the computer HAL).
Shot in black-and-white, DOCTOR STRANGELOVE may require from the viewer a certain amount of knowledge about the history of the Cold War to be fully appreciated. Once beyond this minor hurdle, however, the end result is a cutting-edge satire for the ages, a stinging indictment about our penchant for self-destruction. It is essential viewing.
Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: VHS Video Occasion: Good for Groups Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older
DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece. Based on the novel RED ALERT by Peter ...More at Family Video
Kubrick's black comedy focuses on an American president, played by Sellers in one of his three roles, who must contend with a Soviet nuclear attack on...More at HotMovieSale.com
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