Brilliance in Peter Sellers/Kubrick Collaboration

Rating: 10/10 (11 May 2015)

DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is a monumental achievement in both filmmaking and performance art. Stanley Kubrick, director of a canon of classic films, takes audiences to a dark place, both emotionally and physically, in the form of a dimly lit "war room." This was released at the height of the Cold War, as détente was becoming more of a fantasy than reality. It is this, and the timing of the film's release, coupled with the black comedy Kubrick employs so seamlessly into near-tragic circumstances, that make this a watershed moment in film. The comedy here, as mentioned previously, is as dark a shade of black as you can find, but brilliantly executed due, in large part, to the performance(s) of Peter Sellers and George C. Scott. Peter Sellers was known as a British comedian, famous for his work in smaller British films, BBC Radio as a member of THE GOON SHOW, as well as LOLITA (1960), with Stanley Kubrick. This film not only introduced him to an international, Hollywood audience, but garnered him an Academy Award nomination for his work in playing three integral, central characters. (He is the only actor to ever accomplish this feat.) Amongst these characters include a by-the-book, but soon befuddled Royal Air Force officer, an Adlai Stevenson clone as President, and an "uber maniacal" former Nazi scientist after whom the film is named. His performances, measured alongside an uncharacteristically, but welcomely, zany George C. Scott, who plays the Curtis LeMay send-up as a Hawk-like, pugnacious Army officer very much in favor of bombing the Soviets, make the comedy land with force. This was also the film that introduced James Earl Jones to film audiences, as he helps to pilot a bomber, captained by General Kong (played hilariously by Slim Pickens, though only after Peter Sellers had to drop out of this fourth role due to an injury suffered while filming) that holds the very future of the world in its bomb compartment.
In all, this film - a darkly comedic look into the frigidity of the Cold War, at the possibility of what could happen should a nuclear attack become a reality, and how some of our most trusted politicians and their advisers might handle such a situation - is a landmark. If you are in the mood for a deeply disturbing, yet hilariously insightful, 95 minutes of Cold War comedy, I cannot recommend this enough. Although, really, no matter who you are, or what it is you like in film, I still could not recommend this movie enough. It has become one of my own personal favorite films of all time.
10/10