Review of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) by Michael B — 01 Oct 2012

SATIRE-The third of Stanley Kubrick's favorite subjects, as told by the DVD booklet.

PLOT:This takes its place during the Cold War times when nuclear war was going on. General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) orders his air troops to execute Plan R, which involves all planes attacking Russia and dropping their nukes on it. Now, everyone is against Ripper's orders and is trying to stop it, including a fuming General Turgidson (George C. Scott) and the laid-back German doctor, Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers). It is a very unique plot based off the Cold War, but its execution as a comedy is a little flat.

ACTING:The acting is great, brilliant even. Hayden does a great job, but the two stars are definitely Scott and Sellers. These two were both main characters in Kubrick's previous film, Lolita, and they work almost as well in here as they did in there. Sellers did a better job than in Lolita, but Scott doesn't break his acting record. Other shiners in this include Slim Pickens as Captain Kong, Keenan Wyn as Col. Bat Guano (clever word play), and whoever played the phone guy talking to Dimitri.

SCORE:Though most of the score was the, "The Ants Go Marching" played over, what wasn't was pretty good.

CAMERAWORK:This has some of Kubrick's ingenius camerawork, and I admit it was pretty great; maybe even harrowing.

OTHER CONTENT:I find this to be, so far, Kubrick's most overrated flick. I see the satrical parodies in it, but I didn't really find it too funny. I do admit, it had some jokes that left me in stitches, but most jokes I didn't find funny. I find it concentrating more on story than comedy. It's still a great film, nevertheless, but I just believe it isn't as funny as back in '64. Time wasn't the BEST to it. One thing I found particularly brilliant though is the ending. I loved the ending.

OVERALL,a great Kubrick film with a flat but unique plot, great acting, good score, possibly harrowing camerawork, and a brilliant ending, but not all jokes succeeded and time wasn't (IMO) the best to it.