Cinema worthy of Swift

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2010)

There has never been a more biting and prescient satire on mainstream American film than Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, a black comedy about nuclear annihilation. In the face of this sober reality Kubrick and co-writer Terry Sothern's scenario provides an endless parade of petty buffoons in power played out by a veteran cast of actors who give career performances.
Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has gone rogue on his commanders and put into place a plan to attack the U.S.S.R. with nuclear bombs. When Mandrake (Peter Sellers) a timid British officer gets hint of the problem he brings it to Ripper's attention who locks down the area and shuts down communication with the outside world in order to assure fruition to his plan. In an underground bunker President Muffley (Sellers) debates with the Russian Ambassador on how to avoid mutually assured destruction. As ideas are tossed around Dr. Strangelove (you guessed it) offers the most radical. Meanwhile back at the base Ripper lectures Mandrake on the theft of precious bodily fluids.
Strangelove clicks on all cylinders in perfect harmony. The story is audacious in its presentation given perfect breadth by the darkly comic life like caricature richness of type with the cold dark oppressive neon light sets and compositions of Kubrick's claustrophobic and sterile world providing ironic staging to the serious and hilarious goings on.
Peter Sellers deserves the triple crown for his trio but George C. Scott, Peter Bull, Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn and especially Sterling Hayden in the time they are allotted hold their own with him though it must be said Kubrick's wide angle and framing does decidedly add to each performance.
Acclaimed overwhelmingly as a classic upon its initial release nearly fifty years ago Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove has lost none of its luster over that period and I'd like to believe it says more about the flawless assembly of the film than civilization. But given these times with nukes in the hands of world leaders that literally match the caricatures created by Kubrick and Southern it is clear little has been learned in that time. It does show however that Kubrick was well ahead of us in realizing it.