Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb stands as one of the all time great films about war because it is so much different from any other film on the subject. It has much more in common with the work of the Marx Brothers than it does with Saving Private Ryan or The Dirty Dozen. The black humor of the film is exactly why it was considered controversial upon release, and how it manages to be so sincere and honest on the subject of nuclear war.
The film is funny because the subject matter is funny. Terrifying, yes, but funny. The notion of nuclear war is so ridiculous and absurd that you can't help but laugh at the logical inconsistencies that would lead to such scenarios. In fact, Kubrick tried to write the film as a drama, only to find that that was nearly impossible. The subject of the jokes are the insecure men who send brave soldiers off to die for the sake of their egos.
The film is primarily a comedy, and it's a real comedy. The jokes aren't just meant to "make you think", they're really there to make you laugh, so while the movie definitely makes its point, it's certainly not the sort of humor that's "Not funny, but has something to say". The humor is, in fact, incredibly funny.
Interestingly, when Kubrick dealt with similar material some years later with Full Metal Jacket, the humor wasn't quite so overt. It would seem that, by the mid eighties, Kubrick had realized that you don't need to add Marx Brothers style jokes to make war funny, that the absurdity of armed conflict is ridiculous enough with or without any overt humor. Still, Full Metal Jacket stands as an incredibly funny movie, even if it feels much darker in tone (yet ironically, isn't quite as dark in terms of story content).
At the heart of the film would be Peter Sellers in multiple roles. These days, one star in multiple roles is usually a sign of a bad comedy, where the producers thought that a weak script could be saved with enough money to just hire one star and put him in a dozen different sizes of fat suit. Sellers was simply a master of creating characters and was allowed to create several for the film.
The centerpiece of these would have to be Doctor Strangelove himself. Strangelove is portrayed as a former Nazi, whose limp right hand will sometimes snap into a Nazi salute. It is through Strangelove that the link between nuclear armament and sexual dysfunction is made most clear and direct. When the bombs start to fall, his sexual thrill is made nearly tangible.
George C. Scott deserves commendation, as well, for his role as General Buck Turgidson. Scott gives probably the wildest performance of his career. Usually known for his trademark whisper quiet growling, Scott was tricked into giving a more over the top performance when Kubrick told him that these would just be "practice takes" to work out the scene before doing a real one. Similarly, Slim Pickens was tricked into playing it straight for a funnier effect as Major Kong by being told that the film was a serious war drama.
If you haven't yet, you need to see this film before you die. It is essentially the only statement that ever needs to be made on the foolishness of nuclear war. - 40725
The film is funny because the subject matter is funny. Terrifying, yes, but funny. The notion of nuclear war is so ridiculous and absurd that you can't help but laugh at the logical inconsistencies that would lead to such scenarios. In fact, Kubrick tried to write the film as a drama, only to find that that was nearly impossible. The subject of the jokes are the insecure men who send brave soldiers off to die for the sake of their egos.
The film is primarily a comedy, and it's a real comedy. The jokes aren't just meant to "make you think", they're really there to make you laugh, so while the movie definitely makes its point, it's certainly not the sort of humor that's "Not funny, but has something to say". The humor is, in fact, incredibly funny.
Interestingly, when Kubrick dealt with similar material some years later with Full Metal Jacket, the humor wasn't quite so overt. It would seem that, by the mid eighties, Kubrick had realized that you don't need to add Marx Brothers style jokes to make war funny, that the absurdity of armed conflict is ridiculous enough with or without any overt humor. Still, Full Metal Jacket stands as an incredibly funny movie, even if it feels much darker in tone (yet ironically, isn't quite as dark in terms of story content).
At the heart of the film would be Peter Sellers in multiple roles. These days, one star in multiple roles is usually a sign of a bad comedy, where the producers thought that a weak script could be saved with enough money to just hire one star and put him in a dozen different sizes of fat suit. Sellers was simply a master of creating characters and was allowed to create several for the film.
The centerpiece of these would have to be Doctor Strangelove himself. Strangelove is portrayed as a former Nazi, whose limp right hand will sometimes snap into a Nazi salute. It is through Strangelove that the link between nuclear armament and sexual dysfunction is made most clear and direct. When the bombs start to fall, his sexual thrill is made nearly tangible.
George C. Scott deserves commendation, as well, for his role as General Buck Turgidson. Scott gives probably the wildest performance of his career. Usually known for his trademark whisper quiet growling, Scott was tricked into giving a more over the top performance when Kubrick told him that these would just be "practice takes" to work out the scene before doing a real one. Similarly, Slim Pickens was tricked into playing it straight for a funnier effect as Major Kong by being told that the film was a serious war drama.
If you haven't yet, you need to see this film before you die. It is essentially the only statement that ever needs to be made on the foolishness of nuclear war. - 40725
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