Courageous and acid (rental)

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2018)

In a cold war time and right after JFK assassination, what does Kubrick is indeed original: it's like if today we did a comedy about terrorism and while America keeps tight, only France did it so far with Youn and Vive la France.
Here the premise recalls what happens in Wargames (the human element to launch a nuclear attack) but in a reverse way (the attack is launched!): It's funny (and comforting) that the path to the actual detonation is very complicated and not limited as a single red button to push like we are told. The military sets and equipment looks very accurate and in this cold, serious world, it's very unusual to find indeed comedy: I remember Hot Shots but here there's no really patriot feeling but frightening humans behavior: the military mind to look for an enemy to attack, the amoral and amnesic use of Nazi scientists for the arms race... There is also a lot of hidden things to notice: I like the army tagline Peace is our profession because it parallels our french name of military forces: Defense Ministry while in fact we keep attacking!
Scott is really good as a obsessional general (wilder than Patton) and Sellers is indeed a master of disguise because I didn't get he was also playing the President (that's explain why I found this character a bit soft!). Watching him is a bit like watching another comedy genius, our french Les Nuls: he acts like Chabat with the look of late Bruno Carette.