dr. strangelove review

Rating: Null/10 (14 December 2009)

There's not a false note in Dr. Strangelove. This 1964 black and white comedy about the ultimate madness of nuclear conflict and the bloody folly of war is a stunning success, and one of the best Cold War movies ever to be made. From the evocative credit sequence of a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker pairing for a romantic mid-air refueling to the totally ridiculous names for all the characters, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is the funniest black and white film that I have watched yet. It is widely regarded as the screen's greatest satire, a film that terrifically encapsulates the fear and paranoia of the Cold War. There is not a sequence in the motion picture in which the dialogue is not quotable -- certainly, there are so many well-remembered moments that viewers and critics will disagree on the best, though surely the sight of Major Kong waving his cowboy hat as he rides the bomb into oblivion is among the most enduring images of its era.