Preserving and Protecting our Precious Bodily Fluids..

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 1999)

I would not have expected this film to age well, since its vocabulary and characters are so quintessentially made of Cold War material. It takes a bit of suspension of current reality and a good memory to get all the gags, but Kubrik's consummate attention to detail and methodical plot and character development still makes this a completely enjoyable black comedy. The humour in this movie is attended by a chill, as one realizes how very close to reality the fanatic red baiting of General Ripper or the clinical warmongering of General Turgidson are to the fact of the times. Strangelove himself is a peculiar dramatic construct reflecting the outrageous rationalizations of the Cold War gone completely over the deep end. The film is a little overextended in its comedy in parts, moving from intellectual satire, to sight and name puns, to some really obtuse character sketches. The great scenes inside the B52, though, or the battle sequence, which look like completely authentic newsreel footage, and the stark cinemetography of the War Room, shows you what a perfectionist and what a finely crafted product this great film maker put out.