Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Reviews

When I first read about this film on the internet I was unsure about whether I would like this film. Because Stanley Kubrick directed it with both Peter Sellers and George C. Scott in the leading roles of the film, I decided to watch it and I am ever so glad I did. The first time I saw it I really enjoyed it but after a second viewing of it, I absolutely loved it. Dr. Strangelove is a comedy but one that you won't literally laugh out load at because it is quite a serious story but has quite amusing characters especially Dr. Strangelove. The title of this film is very long and in a way it is quite a mysterious one to me because I don't fully get why it has to be so long. Dr. Strangelove is a film that I think is appreciated by most classic film fans and critics from all over the world but it won't really be appreciated or likable to people who either don't like classics, dark comedy or Kubrick/Sellers/Scott. My favourite shots of the film are where the planes are in the air and there are the beautiful settings of the mountains and fields. Depending on the angle of the plane, it looks like the plane is coming towards the camera, the camera is alongside the plane or the camera is following the plane.


Peter Sellers was a legendary actor with a very wide taste of comedy. His performance in this film was so serious and so funny at the same time especially when he was playing three characters. He portrays Group Captain Lionel Mandrake who is a British exchange officer, President Merkin Muffley who is the American Commander-In-Chief and Dr. Strangelove who is a disabled ex-Nazi war expert. Dr. Strangelove was my favourite character in this film because he was the comedy of this film and he was a very tight character to watch. Peter Sellers' Dr Strangelove voice was absolutely fantastic that was quite frightening at times especially with his facial expressions when he speaks to people. Peter Sellers should have won the Best Leading Actor Oscar instead of Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. George C. Scott was awesome too as General Buck Turgidson. The whole cast was mostly men with only one woman cast in this film. That woman was Tracy Reed who was Miss. Scott. Miss. Scott is the secretary and mistress of General Buck Turgidson. She only appeared in one scene in this film.


I absolutely love the very beginning and the very end of this film because it shows the pure beauty of what the film is going to bring despite the genre. Also did it because it was about the possible ending of the world but those scenes proved the beauty and innocence of the world. Kubrick did this for the beginning and end of 2001: A Space Odyssey too which was absolutely brilliant. I think that Dr. Strangelove was his breakthrough film despite Paths Of Glory because after Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick truly does what he can do regarding the art of cinema and how he creates the characters and writes the scripts for them. Most black comedies are very original but because it was a film that involves quite a complex dialogue. Kubrick was nominated for Best Director in this film. Dr. Strangelove should have won all the Oscars it was nominated for including Best Picture 1964. Kubrick should have had an Oscar for A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey too.


Dr. Strangelove is an absolutely phenomenal masterpiece that is the most famous black-comedy of all time and it is one of my favourites of that kind. Kubrick is one of my close favourite directors so Dr. Strangelove is the fourth best film from him after A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. It isn't 5-stars but it is very, very close to reaching that rating. When I watch it again in the future and love it more, it could be 5-stars. Dr. Strangelove is a beautifully filmed masterpiece that I think I will love more as I watch it more.

There is no doubt in my mind that Peter Sellers made this movie. And what a movie!

Sellers plays several characters in this film, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and of course Dr. Strangelove. Each not only showed an amazing command of various accents, English, American and German in that order; but highlighted just exactly why Seller's was one of the greatest character actors of all time. His gestures and traits change so much between characters; you often forget it's the same man.

Strangelove is played so over the top, crazed hair style, wide eyed stares, a precise german accent and alien hand syndrome, that occassionally makes a nazi salute. This is perfectly juxtaposed by the subtle and understated way, Sellers plays the President. A quiet man, unassured and stammering; who addresses the President of Russia; as if it were his wife. Even with a looming nuclear disater, he is played down. The whole film is a master of satire; hysterically funny in places and very fun in the rest.

Kubrick, the master of controversy; makes a really unsettling case and point in this film; about our fragile position on this earth with advancements in nuclear weapons and wartime frictions. I cannot imagine how much more unsettling it would have seemed at the time; as it arrived right in the centre of the cold war.

Not having grown up in the black & white era, I can't say I'm normally a fan of old classics, yet this movie compelled me. It's one of the most satirical black comedy I've ever seen, dealing with a topic that was very sensitive to people at the time; Nuclear War with the USSR.

It centres around a US General that has lost his sanity and single-handedly issues a code to all the B-52 bombers in the air to head towards their prime targets inside the USSR to drop nukes, and then commands them to shut down all communications.

The suspense builds as the US president, his top General played by a brilliantly funny George C. Scott, and the chiefs of staff, as well as the Russian ambassador, are trying everything in their power to establish communications with the planes, and failing that, to plan for full scale nuclear war.

This is quite easily Kubrick's greatest comedy, and examines the consequences if we give too much power to leaders that are all too often insane.

I highly recommend this to everyone, no matter your age. In some ways, it applies to present day warmongering of nations just as much as it did back during the Cold War era.