Movie #: 20 Title: Dr. Strangelove 1964

Rating: 9.70

Director (last): KUBRICK (first): STANLEY

Writer (last): HENRY (first): BUCK

One of the most brilliant films ever made, which is astonishing considering its daring subject and tone. Made serious film on same subject, FAIL SAFE, into a commercial disaster by parodying its subject to death. Fonda is said to have had trouble keeping a straight face after seeing Strangelove during filming of FAIL SAFE. This sounds suspiciously like Hollywood myth but its appeal is understandable. Scott is mesmerizingly funny as General "Buck" Turgidson, Sellers is brilliant in three roles, as President Muffley-- clumsily apologizing to Soviet Premier "Kissov" for launching World War III--British attache Mandrake, and Dr. Strangelove himself, an ex-Nazi scientist now employed by the Pentagon to assess consequences of nuclear war and said to have been based on Wehrner Von Braun, the former Nazi scientist who came to head up the space program in the U.S. Supporting cast, especially Slim Pickens, is also superb and the script, by Buck Henry, outstanding. Wonderful sense of the absurdity of modern warfare, as when General Turdgidson takes a phone-call from his air-head mistress in the war room, and Colonel Bat Guano hesitates before shooting up a Coke machine for some change so Colonel Mandrake can save the world with a phone call to the White House. Few films from the early 1960's stand the test of time as well as this one does. Considering the later exploits of General Westmoreland, Alex Haig, Oliver North, et. al., this film is a timeless revelation of the massive, idiotic, egocentric stupidity of war. After the crisis is thought to have passed, General Buck Turgidson leads the assembled generals and officials in prayer and there is a palpable sense of dramatized embarrassment-- these powerful lunatics know the correct formulary, but you know that they are all too aware of how disjointed the concept of a moral law is with the realpolitik of nuclear war.

Is this movie a "gem"? No

Evil Twin:

Good Twin: Fail Safe

 

Added: 1976-01-01 [yyyy-mm-dd]