The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2009)

"Dr. Strangelove" is still funny after all these years. Mainly, this is due to Stanley Kubrick's direction, and the triad of hilarious characterizations from Peter Sellers, who plays stiff-lipped British "Captain Lionel Mandrake", deadpan American "President Merkin Muffley", and spastic German scientist "Dr. Strangelove". Sellers is at his best portraying the relatively low-key President, trying to calm down his hysterical Russian counterpart on the telephone.
"Listen, Dmitri," apologies Sellers, after the US launches a nuclear attack on the USSR, "I'm sorry too, Dmitri..." Slim Pickens riding "The Bomb" into oblivion is an iconic image; it's the satirical apex of "Cold War" masculinity. This will undoubtedly sound blasphemous, but Mr. Kubrick should have given the non-war room segments (specifically, the office and cockpit scenes) a sharper edit. And, the inter-cutting "pie fight" ending, incorrectly dismissed as too farcical, should be restored.
********* Dr. Strangelove (1/29/64) Stanley Kubrick ~ Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens