Review of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

This film features a lot of dry wit and is a good piece of political satire. I liked how the various people, representing different aspects of the US (the military etc.) and other nationalities, are put together in close quarters in the war room, which inevitably lead to some clashes. This isn't the sort of film that offers lots of immediate laughs but I appreciated the quirky characters and there are certainly some rather amusing pieces of dialogue, one famous quote being 'Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room!'. I found the phone calls made by various officials particularly amusing. One conversation features an official arguing with the person on the other end of the line that 'I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are' and consequently going off in a huff. There is a pointed sense of immaturity portrayed in the way that such people communicate with one another, which makes you think about the potential childishness, the one up-man ship aspect of war and of political confrontation generally I suppose. I found it somehow amusing that one of the characters kept referring to the Russians as the 'Ruskies'.

I liked the various characters played by Peter Sellers. His characters are, unsurprisingly, quite comical in tone and have an edge of caricature about them. The film has a serious theme (the threat of nuclear war) and it does well at making us think what could happen. It has some distinctly comic moments within the script but it also poses some important questions, makes the viewer see the somewhat sinister side of megalomania and its certainly decent as a piece of thought provoking cinema. The fact its filmed in black and white is also quite well judged, I feel, as it gives it an almost timeless feel to it. The film dates from the mid 1960s, when most films were shot in colour as standard and given the very modern danger that was an all out nuclear war, at the time this film was made and initially released, its perhaps ironic that its shown in a normally quite dated way but it does give it a timeless feel somehow.

The plot is a bit meandering and it won't appeal to everyone but I'm glad I've seen it twice now as I feel I appreciate it more now and the first time I saw it, I really wasn't in the mood for this type of film (political satire) and indeed I stopped watching after half an hour or so. Given I saw the drama show Catch 20 recently, I could see some similarities and perhaps better understand where its coming from.

I would recommend this to people in the mood for such a film, not an all out laugh a minute comedy or a light and easy watch as such and not for people hoping for constant fast paced action or war scenes but otherwise its a cult classic that I'd say is worth a watch.