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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
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Connor Macgregor Reviews...Dr Strangelove
One of Kubrick's earlier stuff before 2001 and when he had more freedom over his work. And to be honest, i had too high expectations for this film.
U.S. President Merkin Muffley is on the hot line to Moscow with some rather embarrassing news for the Soviet premier: "Hello, Dimitri....I'm fine....Now then, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb....The bomb, Dimitri. The hydrogen bomb....Well, now, what happened is that, uh, one of our base commanders...he went a little funny in the head....and he went and did a silly thing....He ordered his planes to attack your country." A comedy about an accidental nuclear attack? One that ends with total annihilation, thermonuclear apocalypse? Preposterous! Stanley Kubrick thought otherwise. In the end his thinking prevailed. The mad saga revolves around a psychotic Strategic Air Command officer, Gen. Jack D. Ripper, who lets loose his B-52 bomber squadron on the Soviet Union. Ripper takes this unilateral action because of his paranoid belief that Communists are sapping and contaminating "all our precious bodily fluids" as part of their plan to take over the world." Unbeknownst to Ripper, his attack will trigger the Russian's ultimate weapon, the Doomsday Machine, a diabolical retaliatory device set to blow up the planet.
So i guess now with all Kubrick films, i am going to have high expectations with, and this is an example of why i didn't love this film as much as most people did. I think its a dark film, but its laughs are very few. Its more dealing with the subject matter than being a black comedy. As usual, its well shot. The shots in the bunker makes you feel you are actually there, where as in the war room, the open space again makes you feel you are present. This is because Kubrick knows what makes good shots to tell a story.
Peter Sellers is fantastic in this film, playing three different characters. The nervous Brittish General, The quiet American President and The Goofy Nazi Scientist. All fantastic performances which make Sellers worthy of awards glory. My favourite is the course of the scientist, just because of his goofiness and the fact that he is losing his mind.
Overall, not Kubrick's best and not a masterpiece, but its interesting and at parts very funny.
Rating - 76% - B+
Connor Macgregor Reviews...Dr Strangelove
One of Kubrick's earlier stuff before 2001 and when he had more freedom over his work. And to be honest, i had too high expectations for this film.
U.S. President Merkin Muffley is on the hot line to Moscow with some rather embarrassing news for the Soviet premier: "Hello, Dimitri....I'm fine....Now then, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb....The bomb, Dimitri. The hydrogen bomb....Well, now, what happened is that, uh, one of our base commanders...he went a little funny in the head....and he went and did a silly thing....He ordered his planes to attack your country." A comedy about an accidental nuclear attack? One that ends with total annihilation, thermonuclear apocalypse? Preposterous! Stanley Kubrick thought otherwise. In the end his thinking prevailed. The mad saga revolves around a psychotic Strategic Air Command officer, Gen. Jack D. Ripper, who lets loose his B-52 bomber squadron on the Soviet Union. Ripper takes this unilateral action because of his paranoid belief that Communists are sapping and contaminating "all our precious bodily fluids" as part of their plan to take over the world." Unbeknownst to Ripper, his attack will trigger the Russian's ultimate weapon, the Doomsday Machine, a diabolical retaliatory device set to blow up the planet.
So i guess now with all Kubrick films, i am going to have high expectations with, and this is an example of why i didn't love this film as much as most people did. I think its a dark film, but its laughs are very few. Its more dealing with the subject matter than being a black comedy. As usual, its well shot. The shots in the bunker makes you feel you are actually there, where as in the war room, the open space again makes you feel you are present. This is because Kubrick knows what makes good shots to tell a story.
Peter Sellers is fantastic in this film, playing three different characters. The nervous Brittish General, The quiet American President and The Goofy Nazi Scientist. All fantastic performances which make Sellers worthy of awards glory. My favourite is the course of the scientist, just because of his goofiness and the fact that he is losing his mind.
Overall, not Kubrick's best and not a masterpiece, but its interesting and at parts very funny.
Rating - 76% - B+