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 ...
Life imitates art.............................
Slim Pickins mouth says “Dallas” but he says “Vegas”. After the Kennedy assassination, Pickins was flown to NYC to dub that one word. Up to that time, it was the most expensive overdub in movie history.
“Dr Strangelove at 60: is this still the greatest big-screen satire?”
Satire? I thought it was a documentary!
Oh, I love her version of “We’ll Meet Again”!
Although I may never be able to hear it without visualizing the Baker bomb exploding underwater...
The B-52 cockpit setup and bombing run procedure were so accurate the FBI supposedly asked Kubrick some troubling questions.
Peter Sellers was supposed to play Major Kong along with his other roles. There are varying stories on how he was replaced. Either Sellers was not happy with his attempt at portraying a Texas cowboy and relented, or he was injured during the production and was not able to perform the scene where Kong releases the bomb from the plane.
In any case, Kubrick asked his casting director to find him a real cowboy, and Slim Pickens showed up. Some of the cast members thought Pickens was in some sort of cowboy costume, with boots, cowboy hat, and the whole get up. But it was just the way he was!
“The situation is hopeless, but not serious!”
“Is everybody in the world corrupt?”
— “I don’t know everybody.”
We love Billy Wilder’s “One, Two Three.” It’s one of our favorites.
60 years ago. And James Earl Jones is still around to remember his role in that film!
and possibly make it from there to the Tango Delta weather ship.
I thought Tim Bultron’s ‘Mars Attacks’ was the greatest satire film.
I thought Tim Bultron’s ‘Mars Attacks’ was the greatest satire film.
Just for the blowing up Congress scene alone.
Even during the Cuban missile crisis both sides still communicated diplomatically. Nowadays with the Biden administration, everything is either our way or the bomb bay.
Stanley Kubrick’s best film by far was the moon landings!
Doctor Zhivago Had better music it lulled me to sleep when I was a baby
Oh God. You really believe your moose/cheese/sister delusions, don’t you?
You must be one of those apologists for the Coca Cola company.
We will have to report you to them.
Lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s
It predicted we would be ruled by “preverts”.
Lol.
“It is an anti-war movie. Disrespectful to the military. Full of stereotypes. I absolutely love the movie. Just brilliant.
And I know a lot of military/ex-military folks who feel as I do!”
This retired pilot loves the movie. And I hate/loathe/spit upon, and hope to take a bodacious dump on the graves of today’s military “leaders”.
You were supposed to hate every single character. That was part of the point.
...And the B-52 in that movie still is a major part of our strategic nuclear deterrent. Not sure how to feel about that.
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