Dr. Strangelove (1964)
…………………………………………………
Dr. Strangelove Movie Review
Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellers. It’s one of the worst Kubrick movies.
………………………………………………….
“Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here!
This is the War Room“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
Yes, this is actually the only Kubrick movie that I really don’t like as I usually love this director. The reasons are many, but first and foremost it’s about politics and Cold War in particular which is a boring subject to me, and how they handle it here is even more dated and dull.
The movie is different for a 60s film and unique, but not in a good way in my opinion. For a comedy, it isn’t funny at all. Well, that famous line about fighting in a war room is fine and memorable, but otherwise the movie isn’t all that amusing, and certainly it did not make me laugh personally.
Peter Sellers plays a handful of different characters here and he’s great at all of these roles. Others are also fine, but he truly excelled and is one of the standouts of this entire production. The characterization is weak and the characters themselves are more annoying and odd than anything else, but at least the acting is pretty strong across the board.
The dialogue is very good for the most part, but again not really funny, at least it wasn’t for me. I waited for it to make me laugh, but that moment never came. Kubrick is simply not great at comedies. He’s great at many other genres, but not at this particular one.
Dr. Strangelove looks great owing to crisp black-and-white photography and some highly memorable imagery such as in particular the bomb riding sequence which is ludicrous, but at least it offered some memorable imagery from a movie which mostly lacked them otherwise.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
As a political movie, it’s fine, but as a film overall, it’s far from great and is rather mediocre. The story is overly convoluted, and simply not going anywhere. I did not manage to follow it properly and I wasn’t willing to do so whatsoever. From a technical standpoint, it’s a good movie, but in any other aspect, it’s simply a giant overrated mediocrity.
Dr. Strangelove is a hugely overrated movie. From a technical standpoint, it’s great as it looks good and the acting is terrific. But the characters are more annoying than anything else, the plot is difficult to follow and the humor is mediocre. It was never funny or amusing to me in any shape or form. Consequently, it’s the only Kubrick film that I really don’t like.
I agree, although the comedy of “Full Metal Jacket” is effective in my estimation. But yeah, “Strangelove” does not age well, for me, at all…
I saw this months ago and I did not get the appeal for it. I feel like if I saw it a second time I would laugh at it more. I kind of laughed at the phone call to Dimitri and also the nuclear explosion scenes especially when the guy was on the rocket. I think it is one of those things that take multiple viewing to get. You said you had to watch Kubrick’a other movie 2001 A Space Odyssey in order for you to appreciate it more.
Most Kubrick movies are like that, they require multiple viewings to fully appreciate them, but the issue with Dr. Strangelove is that it’s a political historical comedy, which I do not particularly like, an I found it very limited in appeal in that regard.