Smartest Movie Ever Written

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2007)

Just watched Strangelove again for the Umpteenth time and still get a kick out of it. The writing is so spot on about the paranoia of the cold war and the arms race. I spent a career in the US Air Force and the depiction of the B-52, the crew, and even BGen Jack D. Ripper are eerily correct. Buck Turgidson's comment on a preemptive strike on the Soviet Union was supposedly the same thing Gen Curtis LeMay said immediately following the Cuban Missile Crisis, "attack now while their pants are down." If you've never seen the movie "Fail Safe", also released in 1964, you must as a companion piece. Same plot, but serious with Henry Fonda as the President. What makes Strangelove so hilarious are the little bits of ironic truth throughout. A bomber crew survival kit with condoms, fluoridation as a commie plot, an underground survival bunker/mineshaft for the heads of government, the Soviet ambassador complaining about "the arms race, the space race, and the peace race," Turgidson saying "the big B-52 coming in so low, jet exhaust on the chickens." If this movie didn't kick start the anti-nuclear movement, it sure gave it a hard push with the clutch in. Young viewers may find the movie boring and miss the subtlety, but do a little research on the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and watch "Fail Safe" and the cartoon "Duck and Cover". Then keep in mind there was a time that not too long ago the U.S. kept a dozen or more B-52s in the air at all times and 100 or more on ground alert (airborne in 20 minutes or less) fully loaded with nuclear weapons. For those under 20 who still need a comparison, think President Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfield sitting in the war room and talking about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and why it was so important to go to war. The same pretzel logic used by our current administration is pretty much the same as President Merkin Muffley and his cabinet used in the Cold War 40+ years ago. The quote used at the beginning of the movie "Crimson Tide" said "the three most powerful men in the world are the President of the U.S., the Soviet Premier, and a nuclear submarine captain." Ya gotta add BGen Jack D. Ripper to the list. Peace on Earth, Purity of Essence.