A dark comic masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (17 April 2007)

Beginning with the most famous auto erotica shots in film history and ending with a nuclear Armageddon serenaded by Vera Lynn, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) is a movie that hasn't aged a day. Even now, forty plus years after its debut, it retains a satirical bite that still horrifies and amuses in equal doses. As a parody of the arrogance and insanity at work during the arms race, it rewards repeat viewings and should rightly be considered as one of the director's masterworks. Whether it is better than the likes of Paths of Glory, 2001 or A Clockwork Orange is down to personal choice, but as far as I'm concerned, Strangelove is the moment where Kubrick proved his worth without question.
What makes Dr. Strangelove so enjoyable is the combination of the horrific and the hilarious. Nuclear Armageddon was the most terrifying possibility of the Cold War and yet Dr. Strangelove is a comedy. Of course, the idea of all life on earth being blasted into atoms is so terrible it is painful to think about, but Kubrick's film doesn't tackle the subject with kid gloves. Rather, it shows of the folly of human nature that would lead to such a catastrophe which provides a lot of black comedy to the proceedings. Mercifully, rather than mugging the camera, the cast play it straight all the way through and to see the straight-laced Sterling Hayden declaring his resolve to prevent Communism sapping America's precious bodily fluids is just the tip of the iceberg.
Everyone in a position of power is mercilessly ripped into. The President (Peter Sellers) is a fussy individual, almost completely unaware of what his own staff are up to and prone to chatting idly with the Russian Premiere as atomic weapons hurtle towards his country. The Generals in the shape of Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) and Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) are paranoid, gung ho conspiracy nuts. The bomber pilot Captain Kong (Slim Pickens) is a decent enough good ole boy but so determined to follow orders that he will embrace genocide and the chief of defence, the titular Doctor (Sellers again) is a former Nazi who has changed his name but not his ideologies. All of them are foolish men, full of pride and ambition but whose shortcomings are all too apparent, an ensemble cast this strong has rarely been matched.
Admittedly, Kubrick's anti US military bias is a little overbearing (notice the only man in uniform with any sense is a British RAF Officer) but it doesn't matter in the long run. One sided it may be, but Dr. Strangelove isn't a documentary by any means, it's a satire rooted in reality but sufficiently distanced from it enough to raise smirks when millions of people are consumed in a fiery inferno.
If you take anything away from Dr. Strangelove, it's most likely going to be either Peter Sellers embracing three roles at once or a man riding a falling H-bomb to his doom, cheering all the way, but it's well worth watching multiple times as each viewing opens up new layers. The incredibly quotable script is one such joy ("Gentlemen, you can't fight here, this is the war room!") as are such instances as machine gun battles in front of peace signs or the barely contained delight on the staff faces as the "ten females for every male" plan unfolds.
In short then, a parable of fear that somehow became one of the most powerful comedies of all time. It taps into the political anxieties of the Cold War with aplomb and can teach even a casual viewer a thing or two about the period. Highly recommended and if you've already seen it, just watch it again.