A Gut Busting Laugh Bomb

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 2019)

This movie is a megaton nuclear warhead of comedy with three pieces making up the main elements of this cacophony of ludicrosity.
The first piece is Peter Sellers ("The Pink Panther Strikes Again"). One of the greatest comedians to ever live, many in the United States may have forgotten him with a tragic amount of expedience due to a few factors. He's British so Americans tend to think of him as somehow outside of mainstream comedy history if the even think of him. He passed away in 1980 and thus was never in any pop-culture movies in the way that we think of them today. In addition, comedy tends to age poorly so many assume old comedies aren't worth watching.
This is tragic because none of those ideas really stick when you try to label Peter Sellers with them. He may have been British but he is not merely a 'British Comedy' phenomenon. His talent as a comedian is so rare that he is frequently referred to as "The Greatest Comedian of All Time." Keep your EGOT. As for pop-culture, how about "The Pink Panther" series/franchise which he headed up? How about influencing Eddie Murphy and his performance as the Klump Family in "The Nutty Professor." Oh yeah, and when Stanley Kubrick, a man often credited as the Greatest American Film Maker of All Time, wanted to make a satire he tapped Sellers for the task. That's got to say something.
As for comedy not aging well, it is one of Seller's greatest qualities, and Kubrick's for that matter, that he seems timeless. His humor , while at times requiring knowledge of some context, is remarkably sharp and poignant even today, maybe even more so today.
The next element of the comedy in "Dr. Strangelove" is George C. Scott's ("Patton") performance as General Turgidson, an advisor to the President throughout the crisis. This performance is the best in the film and that is saying a lot considering the presence of Peter Sellers in the movie.
Scott's wildly gesticulating performance is a symbol of every human reaction to a crisis when your only solutions to a problem are violent ones. In the end you find yourself cheering for how effectively you cause your own demise. Scott's ability to play both the panicked hysteria and the confidence of the military is one of the greatest examples of satire I have ever seen.