Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George (based on his book Red Alert), directed by Stanley Kubrick - 10 out of 10 - Unique magnum opus, which is mirthful and yet so profound

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George (based on his book Red Alert), directed by Stanley Kubrick

10 out of 10 - Unique magnum opus, which is mirthful and yet so profound

This is not just one of the best comedies ever made, as stated for instance by the inclusion on The New York Times’ 1,000 Best Movies Ever Made - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/6 - but it would be among the crème de la crème, given the extraordinary impact, subtle if still hilarious script, the political message, the genius of the writer- director who show here that he can directed any genre, comedy, Science Fiction (as in the brilliant A Clockwork Orange http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-clockwork-orange-by-anthony-burgess.html) historical masterpieces (Spartacus http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/spartacus-directed-by-stanley-kubrick.html) war magnum opera as in Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket – noted on at the same internet address…

As seen yesterday, again, broadcast on Cinemax, the comedy is ever more poignant for it sheds light on the present and if some viewers would have had doubts over the lunatic in the film, appropriately named General Jack Ripper as portrayed by the magnificent Sterling Hayden, and think that the scenario is farfetched, then they should look at the present and the leader of the free world – forget someone in the chain of command, see right at the top – and the various, multiple signs of illness he shows, from paranoia to dementia, from germ phobia to the always displayed Narcissistic Personality Disorder, all ignored by the vile entourage and his fan base, in spite of the multiple lies – the latest deal with the blow that could have sparked a war with Iran, for which he mentioned threat to Embassies, but the public learned that no such destinations have been warned by the ‘imminent danger’…

The general in the movie, just like the cretin in the White Hose – he recently misspelled ‘house republicans ‘and wrote hose instead, thus, as the bright Seth Meyers joked: they now must change the signs there, for all around are just sycophants and none has the courage to point out a mistake to the ‘stable genius’, better than Abraham Lincoln, as they and the stupid fella have it – goes mad, and mumbles about ‘the bodily fluids’, give the order to execute plan R to the bombardiers and they attack the Soviet Union of the time, because in the past, they had approved a measure by which someone lower than the president would be able to start this catastrophe, once the leaders will have been wiped out by a sneaky attack from the ‘Russkies’

An emergency meeting is taking place in the War Room – where the fanatical Buck Turgidson aka marvelous George C. Scott fights with the Soviet Ambassador, named with gusto de Sadesky, only to be stopped by the president who shouts ‘gentlemen, you cannot fight in here, this is the War Room – but the options are limited, if they exist, because the mad general had taken precautions to seal his base and make sure that the Americans would be forced to use all the force to annihilate the Russians, and everyone else perhaps, now that they know the retaliation is imminent and there is nothing to stop the place in their calamitous, unstoppable missions.

Nonetheless, they try to find a way out, calling the leader of the soviets, who is out, drunk and jocular, if also sinister in the implications of this irresponsible and credible behavior if we look at what they and their present successor in the Kremlin have kept doing through the last century and to this day, and has as suggestions for the American president aka the fantastic, divine Peter Sellers, who has two other roles and they were considering him for another, that of the pilot of the plane that might reach a target in the enemy territory, the idea to call Omsk where the command for the air defenses is situated, but since he does not have the phone number, he states that they should call…information!

Meanwhile, Captain Lionel Mandrake aka the same ubiquitous, versatile Peter Sellers tries to reason with the mad Ripper, explaining that he had found a radio and the tunes on the air are joyous and thus there could not be any war going on, but evidently he has no real interlocutor to talk to, up to the moment when the base is taken over, the crazy general shoots himself and there is a chance, only a small one though, to explain the drama to the Colonel ‘Bat’ Guano, who is worried by the ‘suit’ and the possible ‘preversions’ of this alien individual, who wants to talk with the president, no less, and furthermore, asks him to shoot a beverage vending machine, causing him to retort with horror – ‘you will have to answer to the Coca Cola Company!’

A third character played by the mesmerizing Peter Sellers is the man to give the name of the movie, Dr. Strangelove, involved on the American side with projects like a replica for the Russians’ Doomsday Machine and asked to detail on his views of what is going on, explaining the effects of the Soviet retaliation and venturing into the one hundred years that would follow underground, where the president and military leaders, to their obvious delight, would be selected to survive and lead, while others would have to prove their skills, sexual prowess, women would not benefit from the progress made today by the MeToo movement, because in the mind of that ‘doctor’, they would have been chosen for their physical, alluring traits, ten for each male, because they would have to keep the population going, expecting to exit in about one hundred years’ time and possibly face the same enemy, coming out of their respective caves…

Dr. Strangelove is that unique magnum opus, which is mirthful and yet so profound, intellectually challenging, addressing one of the most important of planetary challenges, the possible extinction, though in the present that looks like happening more likely because we destroy the planet with pollution rather than with atomic weapons…