I saw Dr. Strangelove yesterday, and I can’t say I enjoyed more than a few minutes of it. The scene with the phone booth, when Sellers is trying to get through to the president, is pretty funny, and George C. Scott does an excellent job at portraying the rabid militaristic general, but overall, I didn’t think the movie packed enough punch to be an efficient satire. Apart from that, I thought Sellers, while excellent as the president and as the British captain, was extremely disappointing (and painfully unfunny) as the title character.
So am I a heretic? Or should I watch the film again (I’ve heard it gets better on multiple viewings)? What are your thoughts?
If you had watched it back in '64, you would have recognized it as an insightful, dead-on satire of (then) current military paranoia.
I can imagine that watching it for the first time now would leave a person wondering what all the fuss is about. As a social satire it is a dated period piece, but masterfully done none the less.
If you are looking for a Sellers outrageous fun-fest, try the Pink Panter movies, or “What’s New, Pussycat?”
If it’s any comfort, I have a co-worker who recently expressed her dislike of this film. I berated her, since I consider it a masterpiece–one of my top 10 picks for best film of all time. Peter Sellers is hilarious in all his roles, including Dr. Strangelove himself ("…animals could be bred and slaughtered!"). But she still doesn’t think it’s funny.
So you’re not alone. But I’d recommend watching it again, as I find it becomes funnier on repeated viewings.
The first time I saw it I didn’t like it either. I was sixteen or seventeen and I thought it was dreadfully boring. Like a good album, it takes a while to get under your skin.
Give it some time and watch it again. Keep an eye on Peter Sellers–it’s the most brilliant performance he ever gave. It took me a while to figure out that he’s not just Dr. Strangelove and the British officer, but he’s also the President. The entire phone conversation (“Hello Dimitri…”) with the Russian premier was improvised. The Dr. Strangelove speech ending with “Mein Furheur! I can walk!” was also improvised. George C. Scott is also beyond brilliant. This is the guy who would go on to play Patton in a few years.
I love Strangelove myself, but I’m a heretic of another kind because I can’t stand that other Kubrick “classic,” 2001: A Space Odyssey. So wear your heresy with pride, and know you’re probably not alone.
Love this film to death… We had a thread open on Blackand white film appreciation Pt 1 Dr Strangelove. There are quite a few comments on it that may enlighten you to why others find it brilliant.
perhaps this younger generation doesn’t appreciate the film because of the floridation of our Drinking water. POE
Haha, I came on this board today to start a threat exactly like this. Actually, more along the lines of, “someone help me like this film”. It has been listed as one of the top movies of all time by so many renowned and respected critics, and I don’t think I laughed once. I just didn’t get it. I wasn’t alive during the cold war, so I am sure that has something to do with it, but still, I am educated about it, as well as satire in general… but I just didn’t get it. Someone help.
Please don’t take this as an insult or dismissive comment, Short Guy, but how old are you? It’s been reported in other threads that the film doesn’t have much of an impact on viewers who grew up in the post-Cold War years (say, anyone up to college age now). Maybe one needs to have grown up listening to people who could say in an optimistic voice “I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed, but no more than 15 to 20 million dead, tops. Depending on the breaks.” and actually mean it, for it to have its full effect. Perhaps this is one case where it’s good that a film might be getting dated.
Personally, I love it, especially Scott and Sellars in the War Room.
Well, Sublight, I’m 23. No offense taken. But you’re right: I didn’t consciously live the cold war days (not really, anyway), and that may have something to do with it.
I did like the phone conversation between the president and premier Kissov: I didn’t know it was improvised, but now that I do, I like it even more.
In any case, when I was 12, I considered this the best film I’d ever seen. The satire is a bit dated with the Soviet Union gone, but it’s still understandable. Sellers scenes with General Ripper are great, too – and what Sellers is satirizing there is the “stiff upper lip” british type.
Anyone who doesn’t like the film is a deviated prevert and will have to answer to the Coca Cola Company.
I always like the scene with Slim Pickens Riding the bomb. Actually, the extent of my emotional resonse to this scene probably says something disturbing about my mental health, that’s how much I like it.
Another important question that hasn’t been asked is–did the OP watch this in a theater with other people, or on home video by him/herself? Comedies that don’t seem that funny (especially ones with such huge reputations as DSOHILTSWALTB) at home take on a totally different light when other people are around. This is especially true when the humor is wry, subtle, and not very obvious, as this film’s humor is. Invariably, when seeing it in the theater, the laughs come immediately: the soundtrack playing Try a Little Tenderness with the two planes copul–er, refueling. The film may date in some of the political references, but many of the types are universal, which accounts for it remaining brilliant almost 40 years later.
I didn’t like much of the film, but I did enjoy the main premise (bombing Russia because the Commies are intentionally flourinating our water to steal our precious bodily fluids) and the whole thing about shooting open the Coca-Cola machine.
The main thing I was surprised about was the music. I have never heard Laurie Johnson’s work for The Avengers, but I have heard some of his (yes, you read that right) memorable pieces of production music (used back in the day, and even now in places from TV commercials to Nickelodeon cartoons), and imagined he would have come up with at least something as uniquely original for the film. I was wrong-most of the music in the film is basically endless choruses of When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
Great movie. I agree with vibrotronica, I first saw it when I was about sixteen and didn’t get it, but I’ve watched it numerous times since then and it’s right up there at the top of my list.
Back in my college days (mid-80’s) I saw a lecture that Terry Southern (one of the co-writers) gave, discussing the movie. I recall one story he told about a scene that got cut from the end of the movie. After Strangelove stands and shouts “Mein fuhrer! I can walk!” he falls to the ground and his wheelchair goes rolling away, and as he is struggling to get back in the wheelchair, a huge food fight (pie fight maybe?) erupts in the War Room. Apparently the scene couldn’t be used because it was one of those “one-take” scenes and the actors screwed it up by laughing during the food fight.
I don’t have an extended edition directors cut DVD with commentary or anything. Anyone else aware of this story? Seems kind of odd, considering how Kubrick was well-known for filming a scene about a million times to make sure he got it right.
I think you have to have been alive during the Cold War to get the full affect of this film. Knowing about it and reading about it helps but the experience of living it carries what you need to appreciate it as the great film it is and was.
My step son asked about the Cold War in the past and I tried to convey to him what it was like, say in the 70’s…
Vietnam, oil embargo, stock market collapse, huge inflation, Iran hostages, Nixon, unemployment, really crappy economy, race riots, nuclear war, the cold war etc…
It really felt like the U.S. was losing the Cold War and that the Soviet Union was winning. There was an expectation that things were going to get worse and maybe that the U.S. would even collapse. It was ‘common knowledge’ that the Soviet Union could take Europe and England anytime they wanted and only the threat of nukes held them back. It was ‘common knowledge’ that the free-world would get smaller and smaller as the domino effect worked its magic. The U.S. military was thought of throughout the world as a joke.
I tried to convey this feeling to my step-son but he just didn’t seem to get it. It is one thing to read about this but to grow up in it thinking that you were on the losing side and the world will go up in flames makes for an unsettling time.
People really did believe in Dr. StrangeLove-type ideas. I’m sure many people would even have agreed that losing 20-30 million people was an acceptable price to pay for destroying the Soviet Union.
I’m 19, and I really love Dr. Strangelove. But I find the cold war fascinating and intriguing, so that may be why I love it when others of my generation think it’s dull. My girlfriend, though, is no cold war buff, and she liked it, so I dunno.
If you don’t like this movie, I think you are some sort of deviated prevert!
Sterling Hayden, who player General Jack Ripper…the man who started the war with the Ruskies…was a communist and had to “name names” to the Commitee on Un-American Activities IIRC.
Some other tidbits…
President Merkin Muffley…not just a powder-puff sounding name, a merkin is a pubic hair wig (among other things)according to THE MAN!
General Buck Turgidson, the general with a hard-on for war…well turgid is another description of hard-on.
Colonel Bat Guano, the one who shoots the Coke Machine…bat shit, how war was viewed to be comparable to.
Major Kong (Slim Pickins) after describing the contents of the survival kit says, “A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.” The word “Vegas” has always sounded like he said “Degas” to me…the reason being he originally said “Dallas” but Kennedy’s recent assasination was reason enough to dub in “Vegas” instead.
As much as Kubrick was described as a perfectionist, I always thought the B-52 flying scenes (showing the plane flying, not the interior shots) were awful enough to make a B movie director blush.
But you’re right: I didn’t consciously live the cold war days (not really, anyway), and that may have something to do with it.