The only true satire of government ever made!!

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2002)

Dear Movie Afficiandos;
When you see Dr. Stranglove, you will never forget the robotic arm of the doctor, that just can't stop going Zieg Hail, whenever he speaks.

Stanley Kubrick, a complex man who made even more complex movies, can easily be remembered by one word. Genius. As most fans of Kubrick know, he would shoot one scene roughly seven or eight times, so he could pick the best take in editing. He was also constanly pushing actors to become the charcter more, if ever they got tired of doing the scene he simply remarked, "Don't you want to get it right?" It becomes quite evident that the product of his pursiut of perfection in films, was Dr. Strangelove. This is the movie to which all the other Failsafe and Sum Of All Fears type movies were drafted from. Although failsafe was orginally a novel, it was Strangelove that inspired the movie to have three distinct scences in the movie, and also a twist semi-anti-climatic ending. The reason Dr. Strangelove has stood for so many years as a great film is because of it's real depictions of characters. Major Turgidson, Dr. Strange, the President, are all charcters that seem to be taken right out of a real life Cold War situation. Even the dim witted president is true to life, but don't call the president a moron or you may end up in jail. It is through excellent charcterization that Kubrick shows the fickleness of alliances, man's insecurity, and the nuclear weapons being an extension of the male appendige. Kubrick true to his form, never insults his audience by telling or explaining why a certain charcter or symbol is in the film. He let's you put it together, and it is in this putting together, that the film becomes transfixed in your mind. For example, Seller's third charcter's name, Mandrake, it actually the name of a natural aphrodisiac. Another example, when the U.S. war plane, manned by the crazed general, enters the Russian borders, it it described as "pentetrating through the hard outer walls of the border and speeding down the narrow canal to the small center target." Small dialouges like this reinforce indirectly the main theme's for this movie. Most movies made during this time in the 60's, that depict the time frame shortly after the war are pro-government. The government is all good in these movies, becasue it just whooped the Nazi's. Yet in Strangelove, the U.S. is working with a Nazi defective to defeat the Soviets. What an odd twist eh? It's small attacks on the government like this, that made the military not cooperate with Kubrick for any of his demands to visit the inside of an acutall base, or B-52 hanger. In short, see Dr. Strangelove and you will not be dissapointed. No movie will make the truth about humanity more clear; when humans try and solve complex problems, we enevitably revert back to school yard mentality.