Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb still stands as one of the greatest war films of all time, not in spite of what it does differently, but because of it. In the pantheon of great war films, there are no others like Dr. Strangelove. It is because of the bizarre mix of terrifying truth and Marx Brothers like one liners that the film succeeds on so many levels.
The film finds humor in the fact that nuclear war really is an absurd, logically inconsistent idea. The film targets the absurdity of nuclear war and the foolishness of the politicians who send young men to die. The brave soldiers who go to fight are not discredited, rather, the war machine that has them dying, in some situations for no reason, is made the butt of the joke.
The film is primarily a comedy, and it's a real comedy. The jokes aren't just meant to "make you think", they're really there to make you laugh, so while the movie definitely makes its point, it's certainly not the sort of humor that's "Not funny, but has something to say". The humor is, in fact, incredibly funny.
Years later, when Kubrick made Full Metal Jacket, he seemed to fully embrace the humorous nature of war to the point that there were no overt jokes in that film, but rather, he simply relies on the weirdness of war to provide the humor. While not as direct as Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket is equally funny in spite of the lack of any real comedic elements.
At the heart of the film would be Peter Sellers in multiple roles. These days, one star in multiple roles is usually a sign of a bad comedy, where the producers thought that a weak script could be saved with enough money to just hire one star and put him in a dozen different sizes of fat suit. Sellers was simply a master of creating characters and was allowed to create several for the film.
Of course the centerpiece of these performances is Strangelove himself, the wheelchair bound former Nazi physicist suffering from "alien hand syndrome", wherein he will subconsciously throw out a Nazi salute only to have to pull his hand back down. The link between the power of nuclear arms and sexual dysfunction is made most clear with Strangelove, who seems to experience a real thrill when the bombs start falling.
George C. Scott deserves commendation, as well, for his role as General Buck Turgidson. Scott gives probably the wildest performance of his career. Usually known for his trademark whisper quiet growling, Scott was tricked into giving a more over the top performance when Kubrick told him that these would just be "practice takes" to work out the scene before doing a real one. Similarly, Slim Pickens was tricked into playing it straight for a funnier effect as Major Kong by being told that the film was a serious war drama.
If you've not seen it yet, Dr. Strangelove is one of the all time great films on the subject of war, and definitely one of those to see some time in your life. It is the only statement that anyone needs to make on the silliness of war. - 40724
The film finds humor in the fact that nuclear war really is an absurd, logically inconsistent idea. The film targets the absurdity of nuclear war and the foolishness of the politicians who send young men to die. The brave soldiers who go to fight are not discredited, rather, the war machine that has them dying, in some situations for no reason, is made the butt of the joke.
The film is primarily a comedy, and it's a real comedy. The jokes aren't just meant to "make you think", they're really there to make you laugh, so while the movie definitely makes its point, it's certainly not the sort of humor that's "Not funny, but has something to say". The humor is, in fact, incredibly funny.
Years later, when Kubrick made Full Metal Jacket, he seemed to fully embrace the humorous nature of war to the point that there were no overt jokes in that film, but rather, he simply relies on the weirdness of war to provide the humor. While not as direct as Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket is equally funny in spite of the lack of any real comedic elements.
At the heart of the film would be Peter Sellers in multiple roles. These days, one star in multiple roles is usually a sign of a bad comedy, where the producers thought that a weak script could be saved with enough money to just hire one star and put him in a dozen different sizes of fat suit. Sellers was simply a master of creating characters and was allowed to create several for the film.
Of course the centerpiece of these performances is Strangelove himself, the wheelchair bound former Nazi physicist suffering from "alien hand syndrome", wherein he will subconsciously throw out a Nazi salute only to have to pull his hand back down. The link between the power of nuclear arms and sexual dysfunction is made most clear with Strangelove, who seems to experience a real thrill when the bombs start falling.
George C. Scott deserves commendation, as well, for his role as General Buck Turgidson. Scott gives probably the wildest performance of his career. Usually known for his trademark whisper quiet growling, Scott was tricked into giving a more over the top performance when Kubrick told him that these would just be "practice takes" to work out the scene before doing a real one. Similarly, Slim Pickens was tricked into playing it straight for a funnier effect as Major Kong by being told that the film was a serious war drama.
If you've not seen it yet, Dr. Strangelove is one of the all time great films on the subject of war, and definitely one of those to see some time in your life. It is the only statement that anyone needs to make on the silliness of war. - 40724
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