Can Someone Explain to Me: Dr. Strangelove?

To be fair, video games nowadays are a far greater time commitment and expense than movies. If you had to drop 500 bucks down just to try the latest movies, you'd be a lot more discerning about your purchase. You wouldn't want just a good movie, you'd want a great one.

I think this may partly explain the disconnect even if it doesn't justify it.

That's why I only watch around 10 movies per year that I think will be great. Video games and movies pretty much give you the same amount of entertainment at a reasonable price in my opinion, but then again I'm a film buff, not a game buff.

Case in point - the Four-Point Scale.

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Aha! Perfect. I hadn't seen that TV Tropes page yet.

Same thing with internet ratings/ebay etc. If you went into a shop and bought some things, paid for them, got correct change and left without incident, would you consider that excellent service? 5/5? Or would you think it's what you expected from the experience and say it was OK? 2/5? 3/5?

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I prefer to give neutral feedback if the transaction was uneventful, it's just business unless they're really bad or exceptional in some way.

eBay disagrees, that's for sure. Oh, what's that? You want to leave neutral feedback? ARE YOU SURE? WHAT'S WRONG?? DO YOU WANT TO CONTACT THE SELLER???

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"Well, at least your intentions behind the UTTERLY DEVASTATING FAULTS IN YOUR LOGIC are good." - Captain Steel

Kubrick is one of my favorite directors ever, but Dr. Strangelove isn't a favorite. My favorite funny part was when Sterling Hayden explains that he got the idea "during the act of love" - he says it with a straight face.. I also don't care for slapstick, and I don't think "There's no fighting in the war room" is brilliant satire or anything. It's been a couple of years, I will watch it again one day.

Not to say anything bad about 2001, but I watched it only once when I was 17. I tried watching it a few years ago, and my cousin said it was too boring. The day before my trip to SF I woke up at 3:30am, so I thought I'd take some painkillers and watch 2001 to take a nap

Uhhhh, I like this guy!

But about HK, Camo is right! He may have an awful taste in movies () but he just tells what he likes or not the clearest way possible and I admire that.

With Black Dynamite I'm sure they were on purpose.

As for Strangelove. It's an amazing movie. One of the darkest comedies ever made considering the subject mater. And there are few movies like it. Some part Kubrick plays straight, as the absurdity of nuclear war really doesn't require him to do anything else. Other parts are pure Looney Tunes. The Ranger getting sprayed in the face from shooting the soda machine for example, or the rodeo riding of the nuke. Tell me Dr. Strangelove going off at the end, isn't channeling Daffy Duck going cukoo at some points. George Scott is hilarious because he's so serious, (mostly)

But that's the thing. AT the time people who saw it were aghast. Because nuclear war was a very real and horrifying thing they lived with day in and day out. It was shocking. Of course some people were appalled.

Jesus. Really if you think about, it's like an episode of South Park before there was South Park. All the sexual innuendo and potty humor. Col Bat Guano? President MUFFley?

I love South park. And that's why I love this film.

Hell. I'm gonna write an article about this. Thanks!

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I second this viewpoint and emotional vision of what "Strangelove" is.

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o.O I did not get South Park vibes from this at all.

I didn't really feel like it was that dark of a comedy actually. The subject matter's certainly serious, but it's so extreme that it's absurd and as you said it's pretty Looney Tunes at points.

I think Dr. Strangelove plays it pretty close to the chest; it's messed up mainly because this kind of crap can and does happen.

It ends with the End of the World.

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I love that, it's a take on Forbidden Planet scene inside the core.

What is? Dr. Strangelove or Marvin the Martian? I haven't seen Forbidden Planet yet.

The film aims to satirize the link between the male libido and Cold War politics and in my opinion, it's one of the most brilliantly constructed comedies of all time.

Its satirical mixture of realism and outrageous comedy is just perfect. It's a great example of a film that uses its comedy to strengthen its social commentary, while still remaining hilariously funny and never once being preachy about what the film is trying to say. The light mood is never broken, which I feel is very important for a satirical comedy in order to succeed.
Many have tried to recreate its balance between razorsharp social commentary and absurdity, but as far as I know, its perfection has never been matched since.

Interestingly, Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe came out the same year and involve almost the exact same plot.
Fail Safe, of course, is a more serious take on nuclear war & the concept of mutually assured destruction.
I just wonder if the filmmakers were aware of the co-creation, or were trying to compete with each other, or if Strangelove was trying to spoof Fail Safe at the time.

P.S. Something I just noticed - Fail Safe is a pretty much dead-serious drama, yet it's loaded with the likes of Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Sorrell Booke, and Dom Deluise - all actors who were known or became known for their work in comedy. While Strangelove had such stars as George C. Scott & Sterling Hayden - not known for comedy.

Look up the definition of "Dark" or "Black" Comedy. Dr. Strangelove nails it. Briefly stated Dark comedy usually focuses on material that most people take seriously and thus it offends many people. Also Strangelove was originally written as a serious film but Kubrik found that the more he pushed things to the serious end the more absurd and funny it became, he then hired a co writer to help him turn it into a full blown black comedy. One of the reasons he did this was because he learned of the near simultaneous release date of fail safe as stated above. There is a site on the internet that discusses the fifty year anniversary of this film, it seems that the movie was taking aim at specific generals and their push for a first strike against Russia and the absurd notion that someone might win a nuclear war.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-d...elove-was-true
Link to article I was referring to. Note the title, "Almost Everything in Dr Strangelove was true." Scary concept if you have seen the movie.

OP, is it the story you did not understand or all the fuss around the importance of Strangelove as a movie?

In terms of Kubrick, Strangelove is my favourite but then again, I'm not such a big Kubrick fan. I did enjoy Spartacus and quite liked 2001 when I first watched it and thought very highly of it but I feel I got wrapped up in all the Kubrick mania of my film buff friends and just wanted to go along with it. Upon re-watching, it's a pretty weak movie apart from the middle part with HAL. Too long, too drawn out, large parts where literally nothing happens and an ending so far up it's own arse, I think Kubrick forgot what the sun looks like.

But from a technical perspective, it's quite brilliant, at times I was just like, "how'd they do that?"

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