Dr Strangelove
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DR STRANGELOVE (1964) Cert PG
Peter Sellers, George C Scott, Sterling Hayden. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. (1h 35m)
Dr Strangelove is Stanley Kubrick's ultimate masterpiece, a razor-sharp dissection of the stupidity of man's obsession with technological advancement presented as deadly satire. It's his only comedy, and as a result of Peter Sellers' sublime performance in three completely different roles, it's very very funny indeed. Kubrick asks a very simple question: what would happen if the man in charge of the US nuclear deterrent goes mad and issues instructions to attack Moscow? Sterling Hayden was never better than he is here as General Jack D Ripper, convinced that his precious bodily fluids are being poisoned by secret Soviet contamination of the water supply. Peter Sellers is, first, the feckless British aide-de-camp who attempts to talk Ripper down, then the equally hopeless American president who attempts to defuse the likelihood of a Russian response to the attack; and then, finally, and most hilariously, the crazed scientific genius Dr Strangelove, architect of the US nuclear programme. The storyline has never been more timely. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer has revived the conversation about the existential risks of nuclear detonation just at a time when the war in Ukraine and the possibility of a second Trump Presidency have made its threat seem greater than ever before. There's never been a better moment to remind ourselves of the black comedy of our modern age. And you have to laugh, because otherwise you'd cry.
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