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| The simultaneously humorous and anxiety-provoking poster for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb |
QUICK REVIEW:
A crazy US general sends the code to his country's eternally flying B52s to launch a nuclear attack against the USSR.SPOILER Bad communication, courtesy, stupidity and hostility figure prominently in the following, sudden finality of the human race.
Peter Sellers (The Pink Panther (1963)) is outstanding in three roles (!) as vice general, president and ex-Nazi doctor Merkwürdigliebe [Strangelove]. But Sterling Hayden's (The Asphalt Jungle (1950)) bodily fluid-obsessed general is just as absorbing.
The whole scenario is in terms of style and atmosphere realistic, so that the ramifications of the rapidly impending doom onscreen are utterly striking and provoke equally strong inclinations to laugh and cry at the depicted folly of man. Strangelove really confronts each of its audiences with the unpredictable, dangerous idiocy that might rest at the core of the person sitting next to you, and is brilliant at that.
Master New Yorker filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (The Shining (1980)) wrote the script with Terry Southern (Barbarella (1968)) and Peter George (Hong Kong Kill (1958)), loosely based on the latter's novel Red Alert (1958). It is a unique masterpiece that is also strange in the way that I personally feel I can't bear to watch it again for some reason, even though I greatly admire it.
Related posts:
Stanley Kubrick: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairytale with both heart and mind (concept only)
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descent into madness is a timeless masterpiece
Barry Lyndon (1975) - Kubrick's elegant 19th century costume whopper
A Clockwork Orange (1971) or, Outrage! The intellectual sci-fi-prison-crime-drama Shocker!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space
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| Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb |
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| Sterling Hayden in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb |
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| George C. Scott in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb |
In lieu of a trailer for the film, watch instead here one of the legendary war room scenes from it, prominently featuring George C. Scott and Sellers
Cost: 1.8 mil. $
Box office: 9.4 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty
[Sellers playing multiple roles was initially on insistence of studio Columbia Pictures, because they thought his playing a character with multiple identities had made Kubrick's last film, Lolita (1962) a hit. The titular character was mostly inspired by German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who was recruited by the US after World War II. The film was scheduled to be released on Nov. 22 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The release was therefore changed to January 1964, and a few minor things in the film were altered. The film was a hit, making 4.4 mil. $ in North America on its initial run, and garnered 4 Oscar-nominations: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Actor (Sellers). Strangelove has been re-issued at several different times in different countries since its release. Even without a world gross made public, we can certainly label it a huge hit. Kubrick wanted Terry Gilliam to direct a sequel to the film, scripted by Southern, in 1995, but the plans never materialized, and Gilliam only learned of it after Kubrick's (and Southern's) death. It is also on Roger Ebert's list of great films, and was voted the 5th best film ever by Sight & Sound's poll in 2002. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is #49 on IMDb's Top 250 and it is certified fresh at 99 % with a 9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?
Are there any masterpieces that you admire but for some reason can't bear to watch again?
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