Why This is One of The Greatest Ever

Rating: 10/10 (17 October 2001)

I have not watched this movie since the events of 9/11, but I suspect this could be a good time to review it. Not since the the middle of the Cold War has our society known the kind of fear and panic that we are inundated with now; the mechanisms are different, but the stakes and paranoia levels are the same.
Whatever its place in socio-political context, this movie ranks up there with my truly most favorite of all time. It's flawless: every stroke, from the broad to the hair-thin, is perfectly placed and executed. Kubrick, I would say on the sole basis of this film alone, ranks with Hitchcock as one of the few filmmakers that can hold up to repeated critical analysis.

Taken as a whole, I say Dr. Strangelove is a masterwork of irony, subtlety, ingenuity, morality, horror and gut-busting humor. Even the base cynicism underlying the film is balanced by the presence of endearing humanity (primarily in the person of Col. Mandrake, one of Sellers' triple-threat performances). Every shot is calculated and executed for maximum weight and effect. Example: How many of you noticed the fact that General Ripper's famous speech about Communist subversion sapping our precious bodily fluids was shot from the exact perspective of his own CROTCH? Sterling Hayden's desperate, unconscious nursing of that fat stogie throughout would have made Freud proud.
Such self-aware direction may actually have come across as extremely heavy-handed if it had not been for the incredible perfomances within drawing attention to the story. Much has been said about Peter Sellers in this film and I have nothing else to add except this: of all of the "presidents" I have seen on film, none have been as "presidential" as Sellers' performance here (including Henry Fonda's in Failsafe). I say this even in the face of the fact that this is satire here; his anger and waning patience with 'Buck' Turgidson is fully palpable, underscored by his awareness of his responsibility as the most powerful man in the world, and of his possible role as history's greatest mass-murderer. George C. Scott presents a comic performance that should go down as one of the best ever (did Kubrick lend some audio-enhancement to that punctuative slap on his chest while talking on the phone in Miss Scott's boudoir? It sounds like a cannon shot). Sterling Hayden is deliberate and absolutely insane.

Dr. Strangelove also has to rank as one of the most quoteworthy films of all time. "Shoot, a guy could have himself a helluva weekend in Vegas with all this stuff!" There are at least a hundred moments that are sheer pleasure to replay in my head. There are dynamics between characters that underlie the basic story in ways that add delicious subtext to just about every scene.

Dr. Strangelove has it all. It has everything that I love about good movies: excellent writing, acting, direction, camerawork, and editing. I'm delighted to see so many young people commenting on it.
10/10.