Hilarious and horrifying

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2006)

"Dr. Strangelove" is a comedy of errors with tragic consequences. It's both a freewheeling satire and a suspenseful story about what happens after the paranoid General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) oversteps his authority and orders a nuclear attack on Soviet Russia. Little does he know that this will bring the world to the brink of annihilation because the Soviets have created a "Doomsday Machine." Disaster is narrowly averted, only to return again
And yet this is also one of the most uproarious, biting, ironic comedies ever made, a parody of apocalyptic scenarios. The fate of humanity depends on a group of oddball diplomats and soldiers who are obsessed with destroying the "Russkies," mainly, it seems, as a way of compensating for their sexual frustrations. Gen. Ripper is fixated on his "precious bodily fluids," a Texan pilot (Slim Pickens) reads "Playboy" in the cockpit, General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) gets dirty phone calls in the War Room. The humorthose character names!is gleefully juvenile, but nothing better illustrates the absurdity of war. Hayden, Pickens, and Scott are all very funny, often playing their roles with straight-faced commitment.
Peter Sellers excels in his three roles as a common-sensical British officer, the well- intentioned but ineffective American President, and the ex-Nazi mad scientist Dr. Strangelove. The former two characters have some very funny moments, such as Sellers' parody of the British "jolly good" stereotype, and the phone conversation where the President treats the Soviet Premier as if he were an obstinate child. However, they are basically "straight men," meant to be more sane and sympathetic than the crazy figures around them. But Sellers pulls out all the stops in creating Strangelove, what with his weird smile, his mangled accent, his misbehaving hand, and the maniacal glint in his eye.
Strangelove is actually a pretty minor characterhis first appearance must come about halfway through the movie. His arrival lifts the movie into new heights of absurdity, but it is always lively, sharp, and funny even when Strangelove is not on screen. And although he's not the central character, it's easy to see why the movie is named after him: he's the figure who most completely unites the hilarious with the horrifying.