#23 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Sorry, Pulp Fiction, but I think this film has just dethroned you as my all-time favorite. Kubrick, you sick, misanthropic genius, you did it again. I don't know if it's for the subtle humor, the characters or the fact that I find America's paranoia during the Cold War incredibly stupid, but the thing is: this is one of the best movies I have ever seen and quite possibly the best political sattire EVER.

The film, set during the Cold War, involves the paranoid general Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) sending a command to an Air Force plane to drop a nuclear warhead on a Soviet base, and he knows the single code that can cancel the attack. The US president (Peter Sellers) then decides to join forces with the Soviets to either shoot down the plane or retrieve the code from Ripper, once he learnes from Dr. Strangelove (again, Peter Sellers) that the base to be nuked houses the detonator for the doomsday device, that will destroy all animal and human life on Earth.

Needless to say, this is a huge sattire of how paranoid the US was during the 50's and 60's, the Red Scare and the fear of nuclear holocausts. Characters like the aforementioned general Ripper, and the equally jingoist general Turgidson reflect this with the former believing in a conspiracy involving water flouridation and the draining of American citizen's "life essence"; while the latter insists on nuking the USSR before they can fight back.

This guy trying to "understand the mindset of the Ruskies" and fighting the Russian ambassador is hilarious.

This isn't a laugh out loud comedy, since the humor here is very subtle, but it can totally keep you entertained for 90 minutes. Aside from stuff like soldiers fighting along a "Peace is our profession" sign, a general refusing to shoot a vending machine for change to call the president ("You're going to have to answer to the CocaCola company.") you have the over the top sillyness and the fantastic performances. The titular Dr. Strangelove has very little screen time but completely steals the show. The fact that the US government hired such an insane person, who is probably an ex-Nazi scientist, to fight something they BELIEVE to be equally insane is hilarious. Plus the film is a massive quote machine. "Sure, mein Führer. I mean, Mr. president."; "You can't fight here! This is the War Room!"; "Our source was the New York times."

"Hey, where'd major Kong go?"

This is, hands down, one of my favorite movies of all time. It's brilliant, funny at times, over the top at others, the characters and their performers are phenomenal: it just does everything right. I can't recommend it as a comedy to watch on the couch with friends and laugh through the whole thing, but as a more individual experience that demands all of your attention so you don't miss any detail.