Humor Makes The Pill Go Down

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2017)

No need to repeat consensus on the movie's general brilliance. As I recall, Kubrick's withering black humor created quite a stir, coming in the midst of Cold War conformity. In loony jest, it even suggests our leaders might be no better (maybe even worse) than the perfidious Soviets. Needless to say, that appeared unpatriotic to many. Nevertheless, it's the inspired lunacy of the acting and writing that makes this bitter pill go down. What stays with me is the movie's obsessive attention to technical detail, whether switch flipping in Kong's bomber, communication set-ups stateside, or the War Room's big board. Lying at the core is that utter contrast between technological expertise, on one hand, and mocking lunacy of the guys in charge, on the other. What the movie seems to say, if you will, is that the same collective intelligence that can create technical marvels is too wacko to use them intelligently. I suspect the lesson still applies, as the movie cleverly implies.