Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
Originally posted a long time ago on Paul’s Reviews Page
I’ll be rating movies on a three zone, 5-star scale. Each movie will be rated
on “Visual Appeal”, “Audio Appeal” and “Story Appeal”. Each of these three
zones can be rated up to 5 stars (or asterisks…. they load faster than
.GIFs)
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
V: ****
A: ***
S: *****
Synopsis: During the Cold-War, paranoid SAC Base Commander, General Jack D. Ripper, launches a pre-emptive nuclear attack against The U.S.S.R. and his second-in-command, a British RAF Group-Captain, Lionel Mandrake, serving in an officer exchange program struggles to get the recall codes from him; all the while, the President and his top advisors delicately try to inform the Premier of the U.S.S.R. of the problem, yet keep him calm.
Thoughts: Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb is quite a film. Produced during the absolute peak of the Cold War, it presented an all-too-real paralyzingly terrifying possibility to a nation ready to “Duck and Cover” at a moment’s notice. Peter Sellers, famous for his
“Inspector Clouseau”, plays 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove: Lionel Mandrake, U.S. President Murkin Muffley, and the title role, capture Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick, better known for such films as “2001: A Space
Odyssy”, “Full Metal Jacket” and “A Clockwork Orange”, directed this film in black and white, and used the medium to its full effect. Sterling Hayden put in a fantastic performance as General Jack D. Ripper, the paranoid SAC Commander who initiated the attack in the first place. George C. Scott plays the
disturbingly enthusiastic Air Force General Buck Turgidson, an adviser to the President in the War Room. DSL is a movie whose story advances more through dialog than action, making it a bit tough for people raised on MTV to sit
through, but it is well-worth watching.