Brilliant and prophetic

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2005)

The film was made in the early 1960s during the hysteria of the Cold War. The Eisenhower administration had just ended. John Kennedy had permitted the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The Cuban Missile crisis had just ended. President Johnson would use the Gulf of Tonkin incident to escalate American involvement in Vietnam.
In such a climate, Kubrick had the audacity to produce an anti-war film. And, it was a brilliant film because it attacked American society's repression and anxiety, which was the basis of aggressive patriotism. And, it attacked the competence and integrity of civil and military leaders.
Kubrick did not make a breeding-heart anti-war film. He was not interested in giving love a chance. He was a realist, and he zeroed in on the crucial flaw in American society.
Even 40 years later, the film has a timeless prophetic quality. Is the American government not in the hands of reactionary nuts and incompetents? Kubrick deserves our respect. He was a consistently brilliant film-maker and insightful analyst.
It's a pity that the young people of today are fed a diet of Matrix films and MTV bites. They just cannot recognise a brilliant film about reality disguised as fiction.