Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Stranglove...can still provide entertainment and intelligence in good measure

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 2012)

This is my second time watching this classic dark comedy directed by Stanley Kubrick and I must say, it's even funnier than I remembered it. I mean, there's Peter Sellers as an RAF captain named Mandrake, as President Merkin Muffley, and in the title role. He's a little amusing as the first character, quite funny in a deadpan way as the second, and hilarious as the third whenever his hand goes up or he tries to stop from that happening. As General Buck Turgidson, George C. Scott steals his scenes every time he goes on a tangent or when he's talking on the phone with his secretary (Tracy Reed) whom he beds. There's also Sterling Hayden as General Jack Ripper who keeps talking about "fluids" as if they're the most valuable thing who's both funny and frightening in his attitude. And then there's Slim Pickens as Major Kong whose most defining moment was when he took a ride on that bomb as if he was on a bull in a rodeo! I also was highly amused by Keenan Wynn's role as Colonel Bat Guano especially his line about the Coca-Coca company to Mandrake. And while there was nothing funny about James Earl Jones-in his film debut role-as one of Kong's men on the plane, I did think how amusing it was that his voice would later become the one that became Darth Vader on the Star Wars series. Of course, the accidental possible start of a nuclear war was-and still is-nothing to laugh at. But the way many of these characters talk and react to the possibility of it happening is hilarious in the way some think it's no big deal while others do think so but in the way they think of as celebratory. Stanley Kubrick gave plenty worth to laugh about while also making you think just how dangerous some people in power can get. So on that note, Dr. Strangelove...still can make one think while also still be quite entertaining. P.S. One of the writers, Terry Southern, was later on the staff of "Saturday Night Live" during the 1981-82 season and wrote a sketch about Dr. Strangelove (Tim Kazurinsky there) conferring with President Reagan (Joe Piscopo's voice since the entire sketch was presented on his point of view shot) on the same thing Sellers' Strangelove did to Muffley here. I thought it was funny enough for me.