"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is a war room!"

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2006)

It's often said of Kubrick that he never repeated himself, as far as genres go at least. Of course, that's not strictly true if you count Dr Strangelove as one of three anti-war films. But it was his only true comedy, and even though it was originally conceived as a straight drama about the perils of the nuclear age it is only through the comical method of storytelling that it has real weight.
It was with this film that Kubrick really consolidated his style. It was here that he more or less abandoned regular camera movement, and began using his trademark zooms and long takes within one frame. It's as if he finds one perfect shot then sticks to it. If the camera moves at all it's generally a straight side-to-side track, from one carefully constructed shot to another. This use of camera became the template for all his subsequent films, although it appears to have happened more or less overnight. It's strange also to think that while only nine years into a forty-five year career as a director, in terms of numbers of pictures made this is in fact in the middle (he made six full-length features before it, and was to another make six afterwards).
There are of course many other Kubrick touches present here which had been in development since day one. There is his contrast of place, particularly through light and dark. There is a slightly crazed intensity to everything. And of course there is the usual supporting cast of deranged eccentrics  although the difference here is that the oddball characters are running the show.
One thing that really makes this film work is the way in which the comedy is gradually turned up and up, like a dimmer switch. There is barely a joke in the first twenty minutes, and the whole thing opens like some dry political drama. The real breakdown point is that freakish low angle shot of Sterling Hayden, at the moment where he first brings up his psychotic theory concerning bodily fluids. By the time the eponymous Doctor is introduced, the thing is well and truly off the rails and more or less anything goes  and all the while keeping to the dark storyline that the comedy was spawned from.
Probably the greatest strength of Dr Strangelove though is its cast. Sellers gives us three carefully constructed and totally individual characters (although I don't think he's quite as funny here as he is in Lolita). George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden are also both brilliant in rare comedy roles.
But after all this praise  I don't know. To me Dr Strangelove still falls a few inches short of being a classic. If you stripped away all the layers of comedy it would probably be mind-numbingly boring. Kubrick has tried to inject a note of suspense, but no matter how you shoot and edit it you can't wring much excitement out of world map boards and cockpit controls. This picture is great when considered as a kind of comic anti-war set piece, but it is too lacking in soul to be anything more. Then again that's not a bad thing in itself, as I can't think of a better way to make such a film.