Saturday, March 29, 2014

Dr. Strangelove - Movie Review

A 1963 classic by Stanley Kubrick on the bomb. Superb stuff. US and Russia and consequently the world are plunged into a crises that only man can create.

Movie begins with an US Air Force aircraft flying in a zone close to Russia. An order is issues by a base commandant General Ripper to drop nuclear bombs on Russia bypassing the President. He has a theory that the Communists are posing a danger to the American citizens bodily fluids. When his executive assistant tries to recall the planes he finds that the General has locked them in and given orders to the base soldiers to attack anyone who comes close.

In the war room the Air Chief tells the President that the Base Commandant seems to have used a clause in the rules that he can issue such orders in certain circumstances. As USA prepares to sort out this ugly situation the President realises that Russia has a doomsday machine which will explode and envelop the earth in radioactive dust for 90 years. All life would be wiped out. As the planes go closer the President tries to convince a drunken Russian President to attack his planes. The codes are decoded, most planes are called back except one which zeroes down on its target. While that is going on Dr. Strangelove, an advisor to the President tells him that tehy could take hundred thousand people with a male to female ratio of 1:10 and hide in deep trenches to avoid the radioactivity. They could come back after 100 years and live on.

Peter Sellers is brilliant as Mandrake the Executive Assistant to General Ripper, as President of the USA and as Dr. Strangelove. George C Scott as General Turgidson is outstanding as is Sterling Hayden as Jack D Ripper. Brilliant satire and one can only shake the head. It's all so possible.  

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