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A+ |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Brilliant Cold War Satire
by Jersey Joe (movies profile)
Mar 14, 2008
8
of
9 people found this review helpful
Okay, you start with the concept of making a comedy about nuclear anhilation....
Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece about the absurdity of the Cold War might be the best film satire ever. Oddly enough, it came out the same year as "Fail Safe" a well done, but serious, look at the same subject.
The concept is brilliant as it exposes the extrememly dangerous militaristic mindset that existed during the Cold War. It points out that if one man in a key position lost his mind, the results could be unthinkable.
The man in question is General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who laments the assault by the communists on our precious bodily fluids. Ripper initiates the dispatch of nuclear bombers to deliver their load on the Soviet Union. Peter Sellers plays Mandrake the RAF officer who must try to get General Ripper to come to his senses.
Sellers also plays the President of the United States, Merkin Muffley, who looks a lot like failed presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. He is a weak leader who has some of the best lines in the film as he wonders how things could have gotten so out of hand.
George C. Scott is General Buck Turgidson, a gung ho general who represents the truly scary Cold War mentality of a lot of the military leaders of the time. He minimizes the downside of what's going on and has moments where he loses focus on solving the problem at hand because he drifts into military hubris.
Sellers also plays Dr. Strangelove, a German nuclear scientist. His presence represents another absurd aspect of Cold War America as our country allowed German military scientists (you know, Nazis) to have an important impact on our weapons development.
Sellers is brilliant in all three roles. The film has a great tension to it and the performances of Keenan Wynn and Slim Pickens stand out as well.
If you have not seen this film, do so. It is as sharp as ever and just as poignant in this crazy world we live in more than forty years later. |
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