Satire Of The Book 'Fail Safe'

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 1999)

Dr. Strangelove is a satirical make-over of the book 'Fail Safe' by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The book is fantastic and definitely NOT a comedy. 'Strangelove' follows the lines of the book fairly closely but with a comic twist which, at the time it came out, was sorely needed. I was 12 years old at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and we all thought we were going to be incinerated at any moment in a nuclear holocaust.
'Dr Strangelove' can best be described as a "black comedy" in which a deranged wing commander of B 52's sends his entire force to bomb what was then, the Soviet Union. Desperate attempts to recall the wing are aided by British liaison Captain Mandrake, played by Peter Sellers who also plays President of the United States Murkley Muffly, and Chief Of Weapons Development Dr. Strangelove. Unknown to the Americans the Russians had been working on a doomsday device which ensured destruction of all life on earth if even one bomb were detonated in Russia.
Stanley Kubrick at his best. This classic still endures as both an entertaining story, a history lesson in cold war politics, and a veiled warning.