the ultimate satire

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2005)

When you look at the films of Stanley Kubrick, comedy never seems to make a appearance. The bulk of Stanley's films contain very serious and dark matter; a lot being very de-humanizing and so detached from being connected to actual reality. You can look at a Clockwork Orange and you call that a very black comedy, where the comedy walks in hand with perverse sexual behaviour. But Kubrick only has one comedy in his line of films, and its the greatest war parody to be ever made, and has no real equal.
A general sets out orders for his troops to make a nuclear air assault on the USSR, he believes that they are trying to hurt out 'prescious bodily fluids'; hence the theory why the Russians only drink vodka. His aide Mandrake trying to stop this assault tries to reason with Gen. Ripper, trying to get the recall code, but becomes painfully hard after the generals suicide. Meanwhile the president is on the hot line, telling a drunken Soviet Premier of the USSR that there has been a silly mistake and are about to be bombed; but so called friendship problem halt this. You never call to say hello the Premier drunkenly says to the President. The president's adviser, a crazed ex-Nazi, Dr. Stranglove brings forth bad news. He reveals that the USSR has a doomsday machines; capable of wiping out the inter human race; for good.
Dr. Strangelove, or how i learn't to stop worrying and love the bomb is a comedy classic. With subject matter that deals with nuclear Holocaust and doomsday, you wonder how this can be a comedy. The satire runs so thick though. Any movie that can say, ' you can't fight in here, this is the war room' shows this is a very forked tongue satire. The bases of the script was upon the book by Peter George, which was actually a serious look at war. Somehow when Stanley was writing the script, he turned a dramatic book into a full blown comedy. This does have some of the most memorable scenes in cinema history; the riding of the H bomb by Slim Pickens has been homaged so many times. Army men shooting out in front of a sign say Peace is our Profession. The compromise of intelligence if the Russian Ambassador sees the 'big board'.
The standout feature of Dr. Strangelove though is the acting. Peter Sellers is brilliant as all the characters he plays. Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and of course Dr. Strangelove, the standout is Strangelove. In the end where Strangelove rises from his chair in shock, you can see Peter Bull - the Russian ambassador laughing; they could not get a shot without him laughing.
If you haven't seen this, your missing out on Kubricks one and only classic comedy.