Dr Strangelove at 60: is this still the greatest big-screen satire?

The Guardian ^ | 01/29/2024 | Scott Tobias

[Responsibility2nd]

Stanley Kubrick’s sharp and persuasive comedy about nuclear war remains a hilarious act of provocation

Sixty years ago, Columbia Pictures released the first of two black-and-white movies with the exact same premise: what if American planes with hydrogen bombs were inadvertently ordered to drop their payload on targets in the Soviet Union, potentially triggering an all-out nuclear war that wipe out humanity? The Cuban missile crisis had pushed the superpowers to the brink of conflict less than two years earlier, and film-makers were unusually eager to face their cold war nightmares head on.

~snip~

On balance, Kubrick’s message is more persuasive. Dr Strangelove remains the greatest of movie satires for a host of reasons, not least that it hews so closely to the real-life absurdities of the cold war, with two saber-rattling superpowers escalating an arms race that could only end in mutual annihilation. There’s absolutely no question, for example, that the top military and political brass have gamed out the catastrophic loss of life in a nuclear conflict, just as they do in the war room here. Perhaps they would even nod sagely at the distinction between 20 million people dead v 150 million people dead. All Kubrick and his co-writers, Terry Southern and Peter George, have to add is a wry punchline: “I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed.”

[z3n]

To each his own. I find 2001 A space Odyssey unwatchable.

~~~

Agree. This is how I remember the movie;

-breathing-
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
-breathing-
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
-breathing-
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
-breathing-
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
-breathing-
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
-breathing-
-breathing-

[rlmorel]

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!"

[M.K. Borders]

“Shoot it! Shoot it! Use your gun! That’s what the bullets are for!”

[M Kehoe]

“You can’t fight in here, it’s the War room.”

5.56mm

[Lockbox]

satire? Hell it has come true!

[Neanderthal]

"Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

***********************************************

The original script had Dallas instead of Las Vegas. They changed it because of the recent Kennedy assassination.

[llevrok]

Buck, at his best

https://youtu.be/UxLe8MWdWe0?si=R3EXzHt6SpHaTHBM

[dfwgator]

My second favorite Cold War related movie from that era.

“One, Two, Three” is my favorite:

C.R. MacNamara: Cigarette? Cigar?
Peripetchikoff: Here, take one of these.
C.R. Macnamara: Thanks. Hm, ‘Made in Havana’.
Peripetchikoff: We have trade agreement with Cuba. They send us cigars, we send them rockets.
C.R. Macnamara: Good thinking.

C.R. MacNamara: You know something? You guys got cheated. This is a pretty crummy cigar.
Peripetchikoff: Do not worry. We send them pretty crummy rockets.

[rlmorel]

LOL, love the scene where he is sticking the sticks of gum in his mouth, his eyes darting from side to side...

[jimwatx]

Yes he was a genius and probably the top film maker of all time.

[Fiji Hill]

As the movie concluded, this is what you heard as the bombs went off. For that reason, I have always associated this tune with nuclear war.

Well Meet Again--Vera Lynn (1953)

[Nextrush]

Sure that isn’t John Bolton or Lindsey Graham or Nikki Haley riding that bomb.

[dfwgator]

Paths Of Glory was a classic.

[Calvin Cooledge]

It’s my favorite movie of all time.

[dfwgator]

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?

[bravo whiskey]

I am planning an 8 week class on the early pre ICBM nuclear programs and deterrents of the CCCP and the USA. I intend to show FAIL SAFE, DR STRANGELOVE, one of the ON THE BEACH probably the first one and maybe a 4th movie TBD.
anyone have suggestions?
I am currently doing a class on CHERNOBYL.

[RummyChick]

I have never seen this movie but did watch Casino Royale. Peter Sellers actually thought he could become a James Bond type and was hacked off when he saw it was a spoof.

This guy must have had one heck of an ego.

Oh, and that movie was a train wreck

[Responsibility2nd]

I LOVE that movie.

SCHLEMMER! (heels clicking)

I read somewhere that Cagney hated making that movie.

[Responsibility2nd]

Peter Sellers was at his best in Lolita.

I remember one time Robert Osborne (TCM) making a comment that he didn’t like that movie.

Nevertheless, I liked it and his performances. Tons of innuendos.

[Fiji Hill]

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?

I most certainly do, and she has a number of fans on FR.

Hollywood Square Dance with Anne Shelton (1950)