Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

First and foremost I would like to apologize for my very long hiatus. Life happens and a lot of changes have taken place in mine. But I am back and determined more than ever to review "classic" movies. I will also be trying to review a contemporary movie once a week as well.

To those who are new here is how I critque movies: (1) plot, a simple description of the plot plus an alaysis of the narrative structure, themes and overall writing. (2) characters and acting, if the actors were believable, moving or just plain awful. (3) mise-en-scene, a fancy word for all artistic flourishes within the film such as lighting, costume, scenery, editting- any thing that enhances the story that is not directly said and last but certainly not least (4) overall rating, where I determine if this movie is good, ok, bad or just the worst movie I've ever seen.

I am going to also make these sound more scholary (and no more cursing-- even if it is horrible).

So to kick off my comeback I would like to talk about one of my favorite movies of all time (number 2 behind The Godfather) Dr Strange Love.

(1) Taking place post world war 2 during the height of the cold war -- A crazy general Jack. D. Ripper is paranoid of communism. He ceases all radio communication between him and the rest of the USA army and orders wing attack R. Wing attack R is to drop h-bombs into the USSR. after the army catches wind of what is going on the President teams up with the USSR and fight off the planes. One plane goes rogue and drops the bomb causing the USSR's doomsday device to go off which launches every nuclear missile in the world thus ending the world--- and hilarity ensues!!

(2) Acting is this movie. Petter Sellers plays three distinct and very different characters each funnier than the rest. His sane British officer, his mid western president and of course the stereotypical crazy German-- each one is better than the next. George C. Scott has one of his best performances as Turgidson and is so over the top and crazy that you can't help but laugh. Their believablity and over the topness is what makes this satire work.

(3) Kubrick is known for his creative use of mise-en-scene being considered a perfectionist. Although he had the genius idea of creating a "warroom" there is nothing else that noteworthy. Instead of focusing on mise-en-scene Kubrick paid more attention to character which is something uncharacteristic of Kubrick. For example, if you think of 2001: Space Odyssey or A Clockwork Orange you can visualize the 1960s "mod" style but this is lacking in Dr. Strangelove *well it does take place in the 50s* but even so-- there's no real stylization. Also interesting to note that this film was his last black and white film.

(4) As states earlier this is one of my all time favorite movies. The reason I love it so much is that it's hysterically funny yet very poignant. It truly does make you think of the capacity of such people to make decisions that can alter our lives. Although we live in a democracy and we elect our leaders it's still interesting to see what can happen if a crazy person rises up the ranks.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in a good laugh. I rate it a 5 out of 5. All though its ridiculous and over the top it's strangely realistic at the same time and I am just a die hard Kubrick fan.