I’ve posted quite a few links to documentaries and other various bits and bobs, but none of them have generated much interest. Hopefully this one will be watched and appreciated. ‘Dr. Strangelove’ is most likely the best war satire ever made, and in my opinion Stanley Kubrick’s finest movie.
I suspect a lot of the younger user’s first instinct will be not to watch it…after all, it is in black and white. Ignore that instinct and you’ll be rewarded with that most rare of gems; A film that is truly original, funny and intelligent, and on the other hand scary in it’s accurate portrayal of war mentality. If only one person watches this all the way through and appreciates it, I’ll be happy.
Top Movie! Its scary to think these idiots run the world. Peter Sellers is really good.
Love the contents of the B52 survival kit: one issue of prophylactics, morphine, tranquilizer pills, one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible, one hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold. Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
You’re right Basse. Where I live it’s only €3 to rent a film, and you get like DVD quality instead of crappy .flv compression that destroys both the image and the sound.
Anyway, ontopic: Dr. Strangelove is a good film, but definitely not Kubricks best. It’s very funny and well made, the story, the acting, the photography, and yes, even the special effects (love the flying airplane shots :)).
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but I remember the first time seeing it I thought it was total crap: it’s far from a classic comedy. Is it even a comedy? It’s got great jokes (the scene where Strangelove can’t resist but showing his Nazi side being one of my favorites), but it’s got some pretty tense scenes too.
If you really expect a laugh-out-loud-comedy, don’t watch this: it’s funny, but in its own way. I think you should see it at least twice to understand how brilliant it actually is.
Fredd: Dr. Strangelove is what’s known as a black comedy, its humour doesn’t come from one-liners or slapstick (though there is a little of both of this kind of humour in the film), it comes by pointing out the absurdity of a very serious and unpleasant situaition.
There are moments in there which will make you laugh out loud (You can’t fight in here, this is the war room!), but I think the style of humour is better summed up by the following quote from the movie:
General “Buck” Turgidson: General Ripper called Strategic Air Command headquarters shortly after he issued the go code. I have a portion of the transcript of that conversation if you’d like me to to read it. President Merkin Muffley: Read it! General “Buck” Turgidson: Ahem… The Duty Officer asked General Ripper to confirm the fact that he had issued the go code, and he said, uh, “Yes gentlemen, they are on their way in, and no one can bring them back. For the sake of our country, and our way of life, I suggest you get the rest of SAC in after them. Otherwise, we will be totally destroyed by Red retaliation. Uh, my boys will give you the best kind of start, 1400 megatons worth, and you sure as hell won’t stop them now, uhuh. Uh, so let’s get going, there’s no other choice. God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural… fluids. God bless you all” and he hung up.
[beat] General “Buck” Turgidson: Uh, we’re, still trying to figure out the meaning of that last phrase, sir. President Merkin Muffley: There’s nothing to figure out, General Turgidson. This man is obviously a psychotic. General “Buck” Turgidson: We-he-ell, uh, I’d like to hold off judgement on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in. President Merkin Muffley: General Turgidson! When you instituted the human reliability tests, you assured me there was no possibility of such a thing ever occurring! General “Buck” Turgidson: Well, I, uh, don’t think it’s quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.
@ Basse: Yes, you are right. renting the dvd is by far the better option…I suspect you are a purist like me, and want to watch a film in the highest possible quality available. However, there is an advantage to watching it online; It’s free and you don’t have to leave the room to make the trek all the way to the video store. Plus people who would never normally watch a movie like this can do so without parting with their hard earned €3.
Oh, and I don’t know why and how google video is able to show full length films now. I just know they do. It must be legit, otherwise it would have been taken down by now.
@ Fredd_1: Right. If you were expecting something like Ace ventura: Pet detective, you will be sorely dissapointed. There’s no Jim Carrey using his ass to talk or any other obvious attempts at humor. Here it’s subtle, clever, and as PassiveSmoking pointed out it comes by pointing out the absurdity of the situation. I did mention it was a satire, no?
@ PassiveSmoking: You just pointed out my favourite line in the film, “You can’t fight in here, this is the war room!”. Classic.
@PassiveSmoking and Madcow: I think you missed the line where I said
“I think you should see it at least twice to understand how brilliant it actually is.”
I do think this is a great film, and if I would have to mention one single thing I hate the most that’d probably be Jim Carreys humor.
No offence, to no one! I know how delicate posts like these are, and we don’t want this topic ending up as a flame war, now do we?
