Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Written: Sep 23 '99 (Updated Sep 01 '01)
Product Rating:
Pros: direction, script, cast, story, insanity
Cons: Strangelove's robotic arm
The Bottom Line: The ultimate black comedy, this movie is highly recommended to anyone interested in film history, Stanley Kubrick, or just seeing a great film.
BrianKoller's Full Review: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying...
Two films about a nuclear showdown with Russia were released in 1964. Fail-Safe took the serious approach, with the pilot's shocking realization "I'm the Matador!" expected to stun the audience rather than double them over with laughter. Thankfully, Kubrick knew better, and turned his version into a black comedy. It proved to be the best film of his remarkable career. In fact, it could be the best comedy feature ever made, unless Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs counts.
At its heart, Dr. Strangelove is more than a satire of Cold War politics. It is a condemnation of patriotism and macho posturing. Cigar chomping lunatic Gen. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) concocts his theories about communist conspiracies concerning 'precious bodily fluids' following an episode of impotence. The aged military advisers to the President salivate at the prospects of serving a breeding harem in underground mining shafts, to re-populate the Earth after the fallout has receded.
George C. Scott is a rabid parody of his future Best Actor role in Patton, as a general nearly as eager to nuke Russia as is Jack D. Ripper. The B-52 bombing crew is led by Major Kong (Slim Pickens), a Texan caricature whose jingoistic speeches about American greatness provide inspiration for his crew. Pickens' fall to Earth, riding an atomic bomb as if it was a bull at a rodeo, is one of the most famous scenes in cinema.
Another member of the B-52 crew is played by James Earl Jones. The future voice of Darth Vader made his feature debut in Dr. Strangelove.
Peter Sellers has three roles in the film. He plays the title character, a crippled, bizarre ex-Nazi. He also is the wimpy U.S. President, and a Royal Air Force officer who toadies to the mad General Ripper. The latter two characters are the least blustering, and the only ones in the film who actively try to stop the coming nuclear Armageddon. Sellers had been in Kubrick's previous film, Lolita (1962), where he also displayed multiple comic personalities. Hayden made his second appearing in a Kubrick film, having earlier been the lead in The Killing (1956).
The early 1960s was an era of great black comedies, which included films like Psycho, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Manchurian Candidate and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Dr. Strangelove was the final entry of the genre, which seemed less funny following the assassination of President Kennedy.
While The Manchurian Candidate would be shelved for decades, Kennedy's untimely demise also caused problems for Dr. Strangelove. In the film, Pickens sees a kit containing money, a shotgun, and ammunition. His line about having a 'pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff' was dubbed to reference Las Vegas instead. A closing scene left on the cutting room floor had President Muffley 'slain', the result of a custard pie fight in the War Room.
The War Room was such a convincing set that when elected President, Ronald Reagan had to be told that he couldn't see it because it did not exist. The lights on the map of Russia that follow the trajectory of the B-52s were created by backing floodlights, seen through holes cut into the map. (This was similar to how the stars were depicted in the opening credits of the following year's "Star Trek" series.)
Dr. Strangelove received four major Oscar nominations: Best Actor (Sellers), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. But this was the year of "My Fair Lady", which swept most of the major awards. The Academy Award's favoritism towards colorful (and profitable) big-budget musicals (e.g. "Gigi", "The Sound of Music", "West Side Story") was never more evident. (97/100)
Stanley Kubrick s classic black comedy about a group of war-eager military men who plan a nuclear apocalypse is both funny and frightening - and seems...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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