Overt Anti-Military Bias, But Funny

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2006)

Like "Cool Hand Luke" which followed several years after this and then other films of the mid-60s, this was another milestone in Liberal advancement in Hollywood movies. Here, instead the rebel, anti-authority hero exemplified in the above-mentioned film, here we see another theme that have been repeated endlessly since the '60s: the military as the enemy, as a bunch of gung-ho war-bent trigger-happy idiots who get sadistic pleasure out of needlessly killing the enemy.
Terry Southern, one of the big protesters of the '60s co-wrote this story with Stanley Kubrick and Peter George: not exactly three "moderates." The movie also pokes fun at those who opposed Communism, which helps explain why they investigated Hollywood in the first place.
Nevertheless, once you get past that agenda of the film, it's very entertaining thanks to funny characterizations by George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn and others and by some excellent black-and-white cinematography. Peter Sellers plays three roles in here, but is best as the President of the U.S.
Scott, with an outlandish Patton-like performance (no wonder he got that role later on), is particularly good with his facial expressions as "Buck Turgidson." Hayden, meanwhile, was always a favorite from the 1950s film-noir days. There are some good facial closeups of him, too.
The ending of this movie is quite memorable, with Slim Pickens riding shotgun on a nuclear bomb as it descends. Now that is good, dark humor, punctuated by the tune "We'll Meet Again" as atomic bombs go off.
Very biased, but a funny and entertaining 93 minutes and photographed so well it's fascinating to watch for that alone.