Superlative.

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2002)

The best black comedy ever made. I could watch it a thousand times and still laugh. Oh -- dated, sure. There no longer is a Soviet Union, although there are plenty of people willing to barbecue one another nuclearly -- as in India and Pakistan. I'd like to mention the writer on this, the late Terry Southern, who had lots of input into some pretty funny movies, not to mention his short stories or novellas. He's the guy who came up with "pre-version." Kubrik did a fine job. He lost his sense of humor afterward.
The acting couldn't be better. George C. Scott embeds himself in one's brain as the general. And Peter Sellers. "Look, Mein Fuhrer -- I can VALK!" They wanted him to play King Kong, the pilot, but it didn't work out. Doesn't matter. It's hard to imagine how he would have improved upon Slim Pickens. "Two pairs a nylon stockin's. Two pair a prophylactics. Shoot. A fella could have a good time on this in Vegas." Sterling Hayden as the mad general gives his best performance ever, even managing to inject a note of pathos into his delusions. For what it's worth, the final target they attack, "the missile complex at Laputa", comes from Swift's satire, "Gulliver's Travels," in which Laputa is the name of a flying island.
After the Doomsday Device has gone off and begun to irradiate the entire globe, Sellers, as Dr. Strangelove, opines that it might be possible for selected humans to survive in the deepest of mine shafts. I wanted to make some reference to a Mine Shaft Gesellschaft but couldn't figure out an easy way to fit it in. So I'm shoe-horning it in here. Not that it makes much difference because so few will twig.
The final scenes. Credits roll. Atomic blast follows atomic blast whilst Vera sings "Keep Smiling." DO NOT MISS THIS ONE. If you miss it, you will miss something worth seeing.