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.”

[Responsibility2nd]

Stanley Kubrick was a genius film maker.

[Wilderness Conservative]

The killed Kubrick because of the 24 minutes he refused to cut from Eyes Wide Shut.

[CaptainK]

I find 99% of his films unwatchable. This is one of them.

[Yo-Yo]

Slim Pickens was genius in the movie.

Major T. J. "King" Kong : Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.

[Col Frank Slade]

“I think you’re some kind of deviated prevert. General Ripper found out about you’re prevrsions, and thought you were organizing a mutiny of preverts”.

[llevrok]

Could Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson survive in today’s air force?? (we need more “Buck’s, by the way)

[Responsibility2nd]

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

[Empire_of_Liberty]

Without clicking on the “Guadalajaran”, the extras on “Fail Safe” are a hoot.

The creators of the movie, “Fail Safe”, were apoplectic that their “serious” movie would be destroyed by the comedy of Strangelove. Of course, they also get aroused by the back of Henry Fonda’s head…

I enjoy both movies.

[D_Idaho]

In fact, I watched “Dr. Strangelove” two nights ago. It was one of the first DVDS I bought many years ago. It’s still one of the greatest satires ever made and has lost none of it’s teeth.

[Leaning Right]

> “I think you’re some kind of deviated prevert.” <

Col. 'Bat' Guano never was one to mince words.

[ArtDodger]

Wag the dog was pretty cool, too.

[Wilderness Conservative]

“If you don’t get the President on the phone you’re going to have to answer to the Coca Cola company.” I think that film has more memorable lines than any. Animal House may come close but still no fair comparison.

[KC Burke]

At various times this is my first or second favorite movie. What an enduring masterpiece.

[RobertoinAL]

I still think back to General Jack D. Ripper’s beliefs concerning fluoride, which has been proven to be true! And Col. Bat Guano? What a laugh.

[Responsibility2nd]

Correct. Think about the lines we use here at Free Republic and other places from that movie. Animal House is another as you mentioned. And don’t forget Blazing Saddles.

[digger48]

2010 was much better

[higgmeister]

It was still so over the top, but I still accepted it as a masterpiece.

[rlmorel]

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!

[FreedomPoster]

Secret society orgy?

[Ge0ffrey]

It’s boring and drags, and isn’t funny. Characters aren’t likeable or relatable. I was rooting for the bomb. Overrated Kubrick.