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Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a black comedy about a U.S. general who goes mad and orders several B-52 bombers to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union. When the U.S. apologetically discloses the impending attack to the Russians, the Russian ambassador reveals that they had secretly built a Doomsday Device. This means that if a nuclear bomb explodes on Russian soil, it will trigger a global nuclear holocaust. The soldiers and politicians race against time to recall the bombers before the world is destroyed.

"Gentleman! You can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

I'm fascinated with the 1950s culture and the Red Scare, so this film really plays well with me. I think it's a brilliant piece of satire. Screenwriters Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern use their ridiculously exaggerated characters to criticize everything that they felt was wrong with American society at the time. General Jack D. Ripper symbolizes the anti-Communist paranoia that plagued American culture. General Buck Turgidson represents the hyper-masculinized aggressiveness of the U.S. military. Major King Kong is a hopeless anachronism who grossly misapplies his outdated World War II logic to nuclear warfare. And Dr. Strangelove is the ultimate irony of all: his plan to preserve a superior kernel of the human race is quickly embraced by the American politicians and generals, even though it is a chilling echo of Hitler's "Final Solution," (which these very leaders claimed to have so ardently opposed during World War II). And that's just a small taste of the intellectual depth that this film has to offer. I love its cinematography, production design and its ingenious use of contrapuntal music. In short, this is a brilliant commentary on American society, which I highly recommend and which still has relevance today.

Blog entries that mention this film:

• April 30, 2007 - Like Asking Me to Choose My Favorite Child