I have never been much of an Old-Black-&-White-Movies guy. Not until recently, I began exploring some such old movies. And I am surprised to come across some really fine ones, even for their time! This is one such movie...
It reminds me of Fail Safe, another awesome Black and White movie I recently watched. Both are based on a similar premise - what if, by mistake or deliberately, someone triggers a military action that will lead to a certain Nuclear War? Whereas Fail Safe is a very serious movie, Dr. Strangelove is a black comedy on the same subject. And yet the seriousness of both the movies cannot be undermined
The name is pretty misleading. At least the Dr. Strangelove part. For though there is a character with that name in the movie, he hardly appears for a few moments somewhere during the second half of the movie.
The movie is full of a lot of zany characters, with unusual names. We have a Russian Premier named Kissoff, a US General named Turgidson, and another one named... Jack D. Ripper :-P And each one plays an equally zany role in this really eccentric movie. Some of the witty dialogue will make you laugh out loud and long. For instance: "Gentlemen you can't fight in here, this is the war room."
The comical storyline might over-shadow the fact that the props and effects shown in the movie are really nice for their time. The bomber plane's flight is traced quite nicely by the camera. And though, one can sometimes discern that the plane is really a model being moved over a set or a background motion picture, other times the plane's flight looks very real indeed. Not to mention breath-taking and elegant... The instrument panels displayed look realistic too (at least to a layman like me who has never set foot inside a cockpit).
The story has its moments of suspense that keeps us holding onto our seats. But the tense atmosphere is soon broken as the scene shifts from serious impending catastrophe to idiosyncratic high-level politicians and military men bungling up the efforts to avert the said catastrophe...
The actors have played their part really well. I personally liked the acting of Peter Sellers who has played all the three roles (Group Captain Mandrake, the President and Dr. Strangelove himself) quite admirably. Though his acting as Dr. Strangelove appears a bit over-done, and gets overshadowed by his other two brilliant roles. And by the way, I was not aware that the three roles were played by the same actor, not until right this moment, when I checked out the Wikipedia page for the movie to get the names of the actors ;-)... I also liked the acting of George C Scott as General Turgidson.
There is something very serious about this supposed-to-be-funny movie. In the guise of a black comedy, it gives a very important message: It shows how greed and paranoia led up to an Arms Race. How building up an arsenal of Nuclear Arms as a Nuclear First Strike deterrent, might not always work. How the Fail Safe mechanisms put in place to avoid such an event may fail. And how we can end up destroying ourselves if we don't stop being so paranoid... The Cold War is thankfully over. But not the danger of a Nuclear War wiping us out altogether, even in this age...
It reminds me of Fail Safe, another awesome Black and White movie I recently watched. Both are based on a similar premise - what if, by mistake or deliberately, someone triggers a military action that will lead to a certain Nuclear War? Whereas Fail Safe is a very serious movie, Dr. Strangelove is a black comedy on the same subject. And yet the seriousness of both the movies cannot be undermined
The name is pretty misleading. At least the Dr. Strangelove part. For though there is a character with that name in the movie, he hardly appears for a few moments somewhere during the second half of the movie.
The movie is full of a lot of zany characters, with unusual names. We have a Russian Premier named Kissoff, a US General named Turgidson, and another one named... Jack D. Ripper :-P And each one plays an equally zany role in this really eccentric movie. Some of the witty dialogue will make you laugh out loud and long. For instance: "Gentlemen you can't fight in here, this is the war room."
The comical storyline might over-shadow the fact that the props and effects shown in the movie are really nice for their time. The bomber plane's flight is traced quite nicely by the camera. And though, one can sometimes discern that the plane is really a model being moved over a set or a background motion picture, other times the plane's flight looks very real indeed. Not to mention breath-taking and elegant... The instrument panels displayed look realistic too (at least to a layman like me who has never set foot inside a cockpit).
The story has its moments of suspense that keeps us holding onto our seats. But the tense atmosphere is soon broken as the scene shifts from serious impending catastrophe to idiosyncratic high-level politicians and military men bungling up the efforts to avert the said catastrophe...
The actors have played their part really well. I personally liked the acting of Peter Sellers who has played all the three roles (Group Captain Mandrake, the President and Dr. Strangelove himself) quite admirably. Though his acting as Dr. Strangelove appears a bit over-done, and gets overshadowed by his other two brilliant roles. And by the way, I was not aware that the three roles were played by the same actor, not until right this moment, when I checked out the Wikipedia page for the movie to get the names of the actors ;-)... I also liked the acting of George C Scott as General Turgidson.
There is something very serious about this supposed-to-be-funny movie. In the guise of a black comedy, it gives a very important message: It shows how greed and paranoia led up to an Arms Race. How building up an arsenal of Nuclear Arms as a Nuclear First Strike deterrent, might not always work. How the Fail Safe mechanisms put in place to avoid such an event may fail. And how we can end up destroying ourselves if we don't stop being so paranoid... The Cold War is thankfully over. But not the danger of a Nuclear War wiping us out altogether, even in this age...
My Ratings: 3
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