Review: Doctor Strangelove

Jean-Francois lent us his copy of Doctor Strangelove. I didn’t know what to expect. Here’s what I knew about the film before watching it:

– It was made by Stanley Kubrick. Uh oh, either a hit (Clockwork Orange!!!) or a miss (2001).
– It had a cowboy riding a bomb.

That’s it, that’s all.

Well, I was VERY IMPRESSED with the film. It was so hilarious. I am a fan of dark/sarcastic humour and it was in the entire film. The film revolves around a United States General issuing a nuclear strike against Russia without the President’s authorization and then the United States have to attempt to stop the attack and calm the fears of Russia. However, the plan gets zanier when its discovered that there is a Doomsday Device which is armed to destroy all human and animal life on Earth if there is an attack on Russia. So basically the US have dug their own graves if they can’t get in touch with the attack fleet which has gone under radio silence.

Anyhow, the film is beautiful. I am not familiar with any of the actors but apparently Peter Sellers is a big name actor from back in the day and he played not one, not two, but THREE different characters in the film! Extraordinary!

I enjoyed the critique of the Cold War and it was interesting to see such a critique coming from the era where the Cold War still in effect (whereas nowadays, it has been replaced but other villains like world domination and control of chocolate factories). I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of dialogue and the absurdity of some comments “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”. Classic.

I couldn’t stop laughing when Major Kong ends up riding a bomb out of the plane and how he didn’t plan on it. All these years I just assumed he had meant to do it on purpose. I had a really good laugh at that point.

I highly recommend watching Doctor Strangelove (although I must admit it’s interesting to see how Doctor Strangelove doesn’t really have much dialogue in the film). You won’t be disappointed if you can see the humour in the situation. Stanley Kubrick, I tip my hat to you for this film.

iplaying: Chocolate – Snow Patrol (Final Straw)