Dr. Seltsam oder: Wie ich lernte, die Bombe zu lieben

Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is truly a masterpiece. It manages to be a hilarious comedy while still being a film with very serious themes. It is just the perfect balance, and it is truly overall a flawless film.

What makes this film so powerful is the message that it made at the time of its release. This film came out at a height of paranoia of the nuclear age and the Cold War, right around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This film depicts a horrible, tragic incident in which a breach in the government and a few diplomatic mistakes result in nuclear holocaust. So, why didn't this film inspire panic? Because of the brilliant way in which Kubrick presents it... as a satire. The scariest thing about this film in retrospect is not how it depicts the impending doom of the Cold War, but how it makes you laugh at it. By presenting it with humor, it conveys just how much of a farce the nuclear arms race was in real life. And I don't think that any other film has captured the absurdity of war nearly as well as this one has. And I am not likely to believe that one ever will. In my opinion, Kubrick has never made a better film since. And kudos to George C. Scott for his astounding performance, as well as Peter Sellers for the most versatile acting I've seen from an actor in one film, and to Sterling Hayden, for performing the most serious, yet the most hilarious role in film with perfect accuracy. Beware of fluoridation!

This movie is possibly the best comedy ever made, only with one fact against it: it's not very "comical". Hilarious? Yes. Comical? Absolutely not. The horrors of the nuclear war caused by a simple mistake materialize before us, directed with skill by the late maestro, Kubrick.

There are simply not enough words to describe Peter Sellers's BRILLIANT performance in three roles: A british officer, the U.S president and Dr. Strangelove. He is hilarious as the british officer, with his wonderful accent, gloomy and neurotic as the president and simply insane as Dr. Strangelove.

Also note that this movie includes a performance by very young James Earl Jones, who we now all know as the voice behind Darth Vader.

The ending scene is also a masterpiece.

Spectacular and chilling to watch Dr. Strangelove in May 16, 2017. I'm not going to talk about prophecy not even coincidence. Art has a way to warn, express or simply entertain in a way that its relevance will always be renewed. That opening with George C Scott's secretary, in her underwear, answering the phone for her boss in the most professional tone imaginable, is a masterful way to introduce us to the normal absurdity we're about to embark on. Terry Southern's extraordinary script (sharing credit with Peter George and Stanley Kubrick himself) is a masterpiece of intention and execution. The film doesn't have a moment of emptiness nor a single cheap shot. Everything works with the irrational logic of tradition and set standards. How can something so serious and ultimately terrifying can be so funny. I think that's the definition of film art. I don't want to sound pompous but that's exactly how I feel. I've seen a 1966 movie by Stanley Kubrick in 2017 that's better, more relevant, ingenious and even revolutionary than anything we've seen in a long, long time. Peter Sellers, fantastic three times over (and he was also going to play the Slim Pickens part) George C Scott in one of the greatest comic performances ever put on film and Sterling Hayden in a frighteningly credible show of abuse of power, complete the pleasures of this remarkable film.

As a film Dr. Strangelove was so well received that a more serious film on the same topic, Failsafe, failed to find an audience. Yet Strangelove made you think as well as entertain which is the ultimate object of any great work of cinema.

General Jack D. Ripper has sent out the Strategic Air Command bombers and locked down Burpelson Air Force Base so that higher ups can't interfere. He's struck back at the dirty Communists for pushing fluoridation of the water supply which he feels has interfered with his bodily functions.

Ripper might want to have checked with the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Buck Turgidson who when we meet him seems to have all his bodily functions working just fine. A second opinion on Ripper's lack of bodily functions might have revised his reason on why his particular functions weren't doing well.

Of course his actions have created a crisis and President Muffley of the United States is busy trying to talk to Premier Kissoff of the USSR to prevent a nuclear war. That is in case those SAC bombers can't be recalled. One of the bombers commanded by Major Kong is anxious to do battle with the 'Rooskies'.

Director Stanley Kubrick went poaching on the black comedy normally that would be the province of Billy Wilder. But even Wilder in his wildest dreams never used those wonderful Dickensian names for his characters that Kubrick is so delighting in. My favorite however is the part played by Keenan Wynn as the army colonel commanding the tactical force that liberates Burpelson, Colonel Bat Guano.

Jack D. Ripper is played by Sterling Hayden a man consumed by his lack of bodily functions. This is a takeoff on Army General Edwin Walker who commanded US troops in Germany and was relieved when it was discovered he was indoctrinating his troops with John Birch Society propaganda which included their fears about fluoridation of water. Curiously enough that cause was actually taken up by other than fanatic right-wingers, people like Ralph Nader. Could Ripper have been right after all?

George C. Scott is cigar chomping, bodily functioning spoof of legendary SAC commander Curtis LeMay. He's having quite the difficult time in deciding just who to root for in this crisis.

Peter Sellers got an Oscar nomination for playing three different characters in Dr. Strangelove. Sellers is President Muttley, Colonel Mandrake of the RAF an exchange officer serving under Sterling Hayden and the crazed former Nazi nuclear scientist Dr. Strangelove. Watching the film, it's almost hard to believe this is the same man using three different voices and appearances that makeup alone could not explain. Sellers lost to his fellow British player Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady.

In fact Dr. Strangelove also lost as Best Picture to My Fair Lady. Of course George Bernard Shaw never put his legendary wit to the issue of mutual nuclear annihilation. Neither did Billy Wilder, but I have a feeling those two talents together couldn't have done any better than Stanley Kubrick.

The image that stays in your mind from the film I guarantee will be Slim Pickens as Major Kong riding that hydrogen bomb down to its 'Rooskie' target like a bucking bronco.

Hopefully we won't meet Major Kong again, who knows where and who knows when.