I’ve only seen one Stanley Kubrick film, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and I liked it very much. For my next foray into the venerated director’s filmography, I watched his previous picture: “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. My recent venture into black comedy with “MASH” didn’t go so well, but I was sure I’d like this Kubrick film. And I did like it, but I still think it shows that I am out of my element with this subgenre of black comedy.
“Dr. Strangelove” tells the improbable but possible tale of what would happen if one fanatic, trigger-happy person unilaterally launched a nuclear attack on Russia during the height of the Cold War. That’s exactly what Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) does. His actions …show more content…
He earned it by showing the definition of versatility as an actor. In addition to playing the soft-spoken president, he portrays Capt. Lionel Mandrake, the British second-in-command to Gen. Ripper who attempts to stop the catastrophe his superior has set in motion, and the titular Dr. Strangelove, an ex-German scientist who attends the president’s meeting because he’s in charge of the nation’s weapons development. Sellers is convincing in every role, delivering a chameleonic performance for the record books. Furthermore, he manages to find at least a few funny moments in each role, too, with the standout being when his president talks on the phone to the Russian …show more content…
Simply, I did not find enough of the film to be clearly humor. There’s lots of subtle humor here, and I got some of that, but the big scenes are the ones that made me laugh the most. Turgidson’s various rants and the president’s phone calls with Dimitri made me laugh pretty or smile pretty much every time. (Though I should say that I find the physical humor of Dr. Strangelove himself to be too broad). Other than those moments, the film rarely amused me. This was only heightened by the fact that the scenes in the bomber, which take up a good chunk of the film, are almost entirely dramatic and devoid of humor, resulting in an uneven mix of levity and
“Dr. Strangelove” tells the improbable but possible tale of what would happen if one fanatic, trigger-happy person unilaterally launched a nuclear attack on Russia during the height of the Cold War. That’s exactly what Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) does. His actions …show more content…
He earned it by showing the definition of versatility as an actor. In addition to playing the soft-spoken president, he portrays Capt. Lionel Mandrake, the British second-in-command to Gen. Ripper who attempts to stop the catastrophe his superior has set in motion, and the titular Dr. Strangelove, an ex-German scientist who attends the president’s meeting because he’s in charge of the nation’s weapons development. Sellers is convincing in every role, delivering a chameleonic performance for the record books. Furthermore, he manages to find at least a few funny moments in each role, too, with the standout being when his president talks on the phone to the Russian …show more content…
Simply, I did not find enough of the film to be clearly humor. There’s lots of subtle humor here, and I got some of that, but the big scenes are the ones that made me laugh the most. Turgidson’s various rants and the president’s phone calls with Dimitri made me laugh pretty or smile pretty much every time. (Though I should say that I find the physical humor of Dr. Strangelove himself to be too broad). Other than those moments, the film rarely amused me. This was only heightened by the fact that the scenes in the bomber, which take up a good chunk of the film, are almost entirely dramatic and devoid of humor, resulting in an uneven mix of levity and