an absolute must

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2005)

Quite simply, this is the best film ever made on the potential absurdity of the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which since the end of World War II has been the dominant mode of thinking of the world's foreign policy elite regarding nuclear strategy. As this film was made in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it tried to make comic light of a very heavy handed topic, i.e. namely, as the title suggests, defending against another nuclear power with second strike capabilities in the event of an "accident." In this case, the "accident" is that one paranoid high-ranking General decides the time to strike the Soviets is now before they can attain nuclear superiority over the U.S., which since JFK was entering a period of detente. For those who have studied international relations, military strategy, and the history of war, this film is filled with biting insight and clever humor. For those without such predilections, this is still one of the most humorous satires on the Cold Wat around. In fact, this film is so good I have been using it in my class for years. Check it out! By the way, Kubrick had high level clearance to interview the top brass of the military and civilian think tanks to make a serious movie about the dangers of nuclear war. That is why much of the footage of military technology, protocol and methods are authentic for its time frame. Unbeknownst to them at the time, Kubrick decided to make a satire instead. This explains why the armed forces forced Kubrick to make the disclaimer at the beginning of the film, distancing themselves from the content of the film. Perhaps he was a little "too accurate"!