The King Has No Clothes

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2002)

I fail to see the greatness of "Dr. Strangelove". The movie was certainly timely. It addressed, through somewhat off-center humor, a very serious and pervasive fear that the West has harbored in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the execution here is crude beyond belief. The tastelessness starts with the "symbolic" names, from the mad general "Jack D. Ripper", to the Soviet Prime Minister "Kiss-off". It continues with a large number of rather gross jokes, some plain silly (the nuclear war starts, and the B52 pilot suggests that his crew is to enjoy some "very serious promotions" once this war of annihilation is over), most laced with infantile sexual innuendo.
Especially grotesque are the scenes with the German Nazi advisor, Dr. Strangelove ("He changed his name; it was originally Merkwurdigliebe"). Yes, I know all about Wernher von Braun, but this series of Aryan slogans and Nazi salutes, again steeped in infantile sexual "humor", was just plain silly.
So there are a few good lines executed quite well by George C. Scott, and the scene that has our pilot hero, Major T.J. "King" Kong, ride on the nuclear bomb on its way to the target is amusing. Overall, not too much.