Dr Strangelove - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is one of the all time great war films exactly because it is so unlike anything else in the genre. It's much closer to a Marx Brothers film than it is to The Dirty Dozen or Saving Private Ryan. This is exactly why it was so controversial, and why it stands as a shockingly sincere and honest statement on the nature of war.
The film is very funny because when you think about it, the very notion of war is absurd. Not to discredit the courage of those who have gone to defend their countries, the film focuses on the business of war, the administrative end, where politicians will send men to die for the sake of their own egos. In fact the notion of the bomb as phallic symbol is made literal with the iconic image of the film: Major Kong riding a nuclear bomb down to Earth while whirling a cowboy hat over his head.
The film is primarily a comedy, and it's a real comedy. The jokes aren't just meant to "make you think", they're really there to make you laugh, so while the movie definitely makes its point, it's certainly not the sort of humor that's "Not funny, but has something to say". The humor is, in fact, incredibly funny.
Interestingly, when Kubrick dealt with similar material some years later with Full Metal Jacket, the humor wasn't quite so overt. It would seem that, by the mid eighties, Kubrick had realized that you don't need to add Marx Brothers style jokes to make war funny, that the absurdity of armed conflict is ridiculous enough with or without any overt humor. Still, Full Metal Jacket stands as an incredibly funny movie, even if it feels much darker in tone (yet ironically, isn't quite as dark in terms of story content).
Peter Sellers in multiple roles is perhaps the heart of the film. In recent years, the idea of one actor playing several characters has become trite, and it's usually the sign of a bad comedy with a weak script and only enough of a budget to hire one skilled comic in hopes of salvaging bad material. Sellers, on the other hand, was the master of creating several comic characters and making them all feel like different people. There's no in-joke to Sellers playing so many characters, it's just that he was better suited than anybody to play all of them.
The centerpiece of these would have to be Doctor Strangelove himself. Strangelove is portrayed as a former Nazi, whose limp right hand will sometimes snap into a Nazi salute. It is through Strangelove that the link between nuclear armament and sexual dysfunction is made most clear and direct. When the bombs start to fall, his sexual thrill is made nearly tangible.
George C. Scott deserves commendation, as well, for his role as General Buck Turgidson. Scott gives probably the wildest performance of his career. Usually known for his trademark whisper quiet growling, Scott was tricked into giving a more over the top performance when Kubrick told him that these would just be "practice takes" to work out the scene before doing a real one. Similarly, Slim Pickens was tricked into playing it straight for a funnier effect as Major Kong by being told that the film was a serious war drama.
If you haven't seen it yet, this is one of those movies that you absolutely must see before you die. From the opening scenes to the apocalyptic finale, Dr. Strangelove is the only statement that needs to be made on the foolishness of nuclear war. - 40728
The film is very funny because when you think about it, the very notion of war is absurd. Not to discredit the courage of those who have gone to defend their countries, the film focuses on the business of war, the administrative end, where politicians will send men to die for the sake of their own egos. In fact the notion of the bomb as phallic symbol is made literal with the iconic image of the film: Major Kong riding a nuclear bomb down to Earth while whirling a cowboy hat over his head.
The film is primarily a comedy, and it's a real comedy. The jokes aren't just meant to "make you think", they're really there to make you laugh, so while the movie definitely makes its point, it's certainly not the sort of humor that's "Not funny, but has something to say". The humor is, in fact, incredibly funny.
Interestingly, when Kubrick dealt with similar material some years later with Full Metal Jacket, the humor wasn't quite so overt. It would seem that, by the mid eighties, Kubrick had realized that you don't need to add Marx Brothers style jokes to make war funny, that the absurdity of armed conflict is ridiculous enough with or without any overt humor. Still, Full Metal Jacket stands as an incredibly funny movie, even if it feels much darker in tone (yet ironically, isn't quite as dark in terms of story content).
Peter Sellers in multiple roles is perhaps the heart of the film. In recent years, the idea of one actor playing several characters has become trite, and it's usually the sign of a bad comedy with a weak script and only enough of a budget to hire one skilled comic in hopes of salvaging bad material. Sellers, on the other hand, was the master of creating several comic characters and making them all feel like different people. There's no in-joke to Sellers playing so many characters, it's just that he was better suited than anybody to play all of them.
The centerpiece of these would have to be Doctor Strangelove himself. Strangelove is portrayed as a former Nazi, whose limp right hand will sometimes snap into a Nazi salute. It is through Strangelove that the link between nuclear armament and sexual dysfunction is made most clear and direct. When the bombs start to fall, his sexual thrill is made nearly tangible.
George C. Scott deserves commendation, as well, for his role as General Buck Turgidson. Scott gives probably the wildest performance of his career. Usually known for his trademark whisper quiet growling, Scott was tricked into giving a more over the top performance when Kubrick told him that these would just be "practice takes" to work out the scene before doing a real one. Similarly, Slim Pickens was tricked into playing it straight for a funnier effect as Major Kong by being told that the film was a serious war drama.
If you haven't seen it yet, this is one of those movies that you absolutely must see before you die. From the opening scenes to the apocalyptic finale, Dr. Strangelove is the only statement that needs to be made on the foolishness of nuclear war. - 40728
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