The truly brilliant would not date so badly

Rating: 5/10 (16 June 2007)

I recently rented this movie to show to my son, having first seen it many years ago. We are both fans of great movies, quirky movies, and Peter Sellers.
I really tried to like it, and as a useful history lesson, I admire it. Some aspects made more sense after watching the extra material and interviews.
But like the other 995 out of 1,000 Monty Python skits that no-one ever quotes, there was a lot more in this movie that fails and/or dates badly. Worse, the failures are generally in things that did not have to be central to the plot - in particular the ongoing bizarre references to the importance of the sexual 'essence', and Sellers overdone character in the war room at the end. They are so bad now that they you cringe to watch them.
And it's a great shame, because the themes covered in the film are more important than ever. It's also impossible to imagine a film being made today that would treat the topic as seriously as this film does without ascending into war-and-technology-are-glorious or descending into empty anti-war or anti-nuclear propaganda. This movie does still succeed in giving some window into the fearful feelings of the nuclear standoff, and how close to 'midnight' the nuclear clock must have been (and could easily be again with a few unfortunate geopolitical developments).
But by indulging the unnecessary and the overdone, crassly and without the soft brilliance of Sellers in something like The Party, the film is not aging well. Perhaps a brutal edit might save it as still worth watching, because I can't think of anything else like it. But unfortunately as it is, it is a big disappointment.