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Dr Strangelove at 60: is this still the greatest big-screen satire?
The Guardian ^ | 01/29/2024 | Scott Tobias

Posted on 01/29/2024 11:02:04 AM PST by 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.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: drstrangelove
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To: Responsibility2nd

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

~~~

Agree. This is how I remember the movie;

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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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21 posted on 01/29/2024 11:27:49 AM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: Yo-Yo
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!"
22 posted on 01/29/2024 11:29:18 AM PST by rlmorel ("The stigma for being wrong is gone, as long as you're wrong for the right side." (Clarice Feldman))
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To: Ge0ffrey

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


23 posted on 01/29/2024 11:31:43 AM PST by M.K. Borders (All I ask from government is the Liberty my Grandfather was born in.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

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

5.56mm


24 posted on 01/29/2024 11:34:05 AM PST by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho have got to go. )
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To: Responsibility2nd

satire? Hell it has come true!


25 posted on 01/29/2024 11:34:24 AM PST by Lockbox (politicians, they all seemed like game show hosts to me.... Sting…)
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To: Yo-Yo
"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.

26 posted on 01/29/2024 11:35:16 AM PST by Neanderthal ("Knowledge is good" - Emil Faber)
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To: rlmorel

Buck, at his best

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


27 posted on 01/29/2024 11:36:38 AM PST by llevrok (“In a time of deceit telling, the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell)
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To: Responsibility2nd

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.


28 posted on 01/29/2024 11:38:24 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: llevrok

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


29 posted on 01/29/2024 11:38:51 AM PST by rlmorel ("The stigma for being wrong is gone, as long as you're wrong for the right side." (Clarice Feldman))
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To: Responsibility2nd

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


30 posted on 01/29/2024 11:39:19 AM PST by jimwatx
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To: Responsibility2nd
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)

31 posted on 01/29/2024 11:40:15 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Yo-Yo

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


32 posted on 01/29/2024 11:40:26 AM PST by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS-REMEMBER REV. NIEMOLLER)
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To: jimwatx

Paths Of Glory was a classic.


33 posted on 01/29/2024 11:40:38 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: D_Idaho

It’s my favorite movie of all time.


34 posted on 01/29/2024 11:40:46 AM PST by Calvin Cooledge
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To: Fiji Hill

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?


35 posted on 01/29/2024 11:41:44 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: higgmeister

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.


36 posted on 01/29/2024 11:45:49 AM PST by bravo whiskey (Annie Savoy : The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self awareness. )
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To: Responsibility2nd

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


37 posted on 01/29/2024 11:46:38 AM PST by RummyChick
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To: dfwgator

I LOVE that movie.

SCHLEMMER! (heels clicking)

I read somewhere that Cagney hated making that movie.


38 posted on 01/29/2024 11:49:39 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent ~ Wm. Blake)
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To: RummyChick

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.


39 posted on 01/29/2024 11:53:31 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (A truth that’s told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent ~ Wm. Blake)
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To: dfwgator; luvie; Kathy in Alaska
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)

40 posted on 01/29/2024 11:54:20 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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