Film Review – Dr. Strangelove

I watched the Stanley Kubrick 1964 film Dr. Strangelove last night. And when you start to watch a classic like this again you wonder if it will live up to your expectations and memory. It sure did; it was thoroughly enjoyable. There is a wonderfully witty script with some brilliant one liners. (There's no point in listing them here as they are best first heard from within the film.)

Peter Sellers is the star for sure. But this time around I was equally impressed by some of the other performances. After all the Dr. Strangelove title character did occupy less screen time than I seemed to remember. For example George C. Scott is just wonderful as the maverick General "Buck" Turgidson, and there are many other intriguing characters.

The really terrifying thing about the film is that the kind of buffoons lampooned here are still in charge of the military. Details may have changed, such as the Russians now calling themselves capitalists, but fundamentally we still suffer the same insanity. And still the lunacy of nuclear weapons is with us. It always was criminal to build these monstrosities and it is even more pointless today. After all these years isn't it amazing: we haven't learnt anything. Or at least the military types haven't, the proof: just take a quick look around the world.