I was born in 77, didn’t see it until the 2000s, and loved it. Great movie.
This. Its among a list of “generational humor” films like The Magic Christian and others that you have to be in a certain age range (or really into a certain era) to really “get”. I would be curious though – have you seen the original “Casino Royale” (1967) and how did that one strike you?
Just thought I’d chime in that I was born in 1981, and when the Cold War ended I was too young to understand what that meant, but I still found the movie hilarious when I first watched it in my early 20s. I did understand what the Cold War had been and, just as I could appreciate a movie about WWII, I could appreciate this movie.
I think the difference is more a personal issue of what you find funny. It’s certainly possible to understand and appreciate it even if you didn’t live through that era in the US. Nothing wrong with liking it or not liking it, anyhow. My wife is from Taiwan and I keep intending to show the movie to her; I’m curious to see how she enjoys it, if at all.
I don’t agree about it being “Generational”.
I hated The Magic Christian. I hated Casino Royale when it came out (liked the music, though).
Dr. Strangelove makes more sense in context, but it’s a great piece of filmmaking. Not being Of That Generation shouldn’t make it inaccessible.
I didn’t mean to say that unless you lived through it, you wouldn’t get it. But I do think it helps. I think, as nealla said, it’s more of a personal issue. Some people prefer slapstick to satire. Some deluded people don’t like Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Some people don’t like costume dramas. Personally, I have to say that I think Dr. Strangelove is one of the funniest films ever made.
On preview: I didn’t like Casino Royale. I saw it in the '90s.
I didn’t like it either. Born in 1970, and it’s been quite a while since I saw it, but I don’t plan on watching it again.
But… but… how about if they Colorize it?
Just because we’re the same age doesn’t mean we’re going to find the same things funny. As we always say here YMMV. It does put it into a context for us though. To have escaped the themes the humor was based on you would have to have lived about 15 years in a fallout bunker. Yes - younger people can “get” it – if they have been raised with a knowledge of the time and events or studied it for themselves. But without that background or knowledge its just a fairly dumb and not very well thought out movie.
That’s really a huge problem with almost every classic movie. So much of it has already crept into your brain from one place or another that the freshness and originality of the original release is gone.
Has anyone in the last 75 years reacted to Rhett walking out on Scarlett like the audience that originally watched* Gone With the Wind*? Do first-time viewers of The Godfather get the same chill when Michael says, “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business”?
If we’re no longer blown away by the cinematography of Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane, the animation of Snow White or the special effects of King Kong or The Wizard of Oz, why should the satire of* Dr. Strangelove* be any different.
Yeah, lot of that going on, but at the same time the classics can work because of their re-use. For example, I recently watched Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid for the first time. The whole time was like reading Shakespeare : “Oh, so that’s where that thing comes from !” and “Ooooh, I get this joke from that other show now !”
Now, if only someone could explain to me what the fuck the bicycle scene was about…
Saw it in '86, when I was 18 and enjoyed it tremendously. I knew going in that it would be subtle and dry satire, which is sometimes a hard target to do well. I thought it was fantastic, and very funny.
Don’t miss Johnny Guitar unintentionally howlingly funny as Mercedes McCambridge and Joan Crawford fight over the man in a Western. Sterling plays the man, who sings songs on a guitar. Oh, the humanity!
“Now we see Shakespeare to wait for the quotations.” - Oscar Wilde, ca. 1900.
The only solution to this thread is for Leafan to give us a list of movies he DOES enjoy and let us all tell him just what his tastes are.
Mr. President, we must not allow a Colorization gap!
You know who else didn’t like Dr. Strangelove?
The bomb, at first.
Mrs. Eidlewilde, my 6th grade homeroom teacher.
She was a fan of HITLER!
Well, not really…
Anyone associated with Fail-Safe?
