"DEAR JOHN" written on the bomb

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2011)

Saw it first at age 9. Fascinated by the bombs at the end. Frightened by the War Room. Not sure I got my 25 cents' worth at the matinée. Fast forward 40 or so years and as my mom and I watched the film on TV. Two things cracked us up after all the years. "Try a Little Tenderness", and "Dear John". 1964. Things were quantum-leap different then, and "Strangelove" was simply over-the- top out there. Cynical, irreverent, disloyal, silly, pornographic, low-budget, and brilliant. Let's hope "clairevoyant" never applies to anything more than Slim Pickens' Texas war whoop in the list of adjectives used to describe this wonderful creation. The tender portraits of alpha males (Ripper, Turgidson) are convincingly emasculating enough to make one wonder how we still manage to exist today. Kubrick broke the mold with this film. Pointless to try and imitate, impossible to try to beat, multiple viewings of Dr. should be required of all Earthlings.