Member review

Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a very puzzling to talk about. Some consider it a masterpiece and one of the director’s best films; yet some consider it a bore fest. Stanley Kubrick has made many controversial films like A Clockwork Orange, which was a first of its time to mix classical music with violence; The Shining, which even Stephen King, the author of the book the film is adapted from, disliked; and 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film which has one of the most perplexing and discussed narrative of any science fiction film ever made. All of these previous films weren’t necessarily critically acclaimed at the time of their initial release, however they are now considered some of Kubrick’s best films. Yet, Dr. Strangelove is a film which seemed to have peaked in 1964, the year of its release, as many of today’s viewers consider this as one of the director’s weakest films.

Before mentioning my personal thoughts of the film, I find it necessary to summarise the film’s narrative. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a political satire on America’s capitalism and Russia’s Communism which was taking place in the 1960’s. Saying that, it is now very easy to understand why so many people are mixed about the film. It’s not like the film is a first of its time when it comes to making statements about the political situation at the time for comical purposes, as Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’ has already been criticised for its parody of the Nazi Germany at the time. However, what seems to be a main aspect of the film which many people consider is its timing. Some consider it perfect timing, and some consider too soon. You see, the Cold War was taking place at the time so for many people, making a film which was making fun of this event at the time it was taking place is unthinkable. This is one of the reasons why watching this film today doesn’t leave as much impact as it did in 1964, which is one possible reason why many people today who might not be aware of the context of this film when it was made, don’t see why this is considered a masterpiece. What if I told you that a film is going to be released this year which is going to be a parody of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, and it will be considered a comedy masterpiece. You would either call me a liar or say that it would be very inappropriate and inconsiderate due to the current tension at the Middle East. Well, Dr. Strangelove was just like that.

A main critique of this film is that it is just not funny. Due to the inconsistency of the jokes being made, many people say that they thought the film’s quality was bad because they didn’t laugh, or that it was very boring. Making this sort of statements worry me when it comes to the future of cinema. When watching/criticising films, it is very easy to give your subjective view on said film. I mean that is the whole point of films; what kind of impact they have on you as a viewer. But there come times where many viewers judge a film purely by how it made them film, instead of adding it to the overall objective quality of the film. Now I am not saying that you should watch a film as robots, analysing every single shot; but I personally think that the main reason why many viewers don’t think films such as Dr. Strangelove are good is because they are viewing it for a specific purpose. For this film, they are watching it as a comedy. So, when the film didn’t make them laugh many times whilst watching the film, many people jumped to the conclusion that it is a bad film. Now I am not saying I am not guilty of doing this myself; I’ve watched this film twice now and I can admit that the first time I watched this I didn’t get it at all. I walked into this film thinking that I am going to laugh and I didn’t. what I didn’t expect to watch was a political comedy that combined silly Peter Sellers humour with serious political issues, including iconic lines like ‘’Gentlemen you can’t fight here, this is the war room’’ which have much more impact on a repeated viewing. Now, I am not trying to make a statement that ‘‘anyone who doesn’t like this film just doesn’t get it’’ or ‘’you have to understand everything that was going on at the time to truly appreciate this movie’’ because personal opinion is subjective. If I like this film and you dislike this film it doesn’t make me better than you and vice versa. But what I am trying to say is that many films deserve a second chance. Some of my favourite films I appreciated more the more times I watched them, and Dr. Strangelove is one of those films.

I don’t like writing in detail the narrative of films and what actually happens in said film because I personally think that everyone should watch films with complete unawareness of what it is about, and I will keep that rule for Dr. Strangelove as well because the less you know, the better the actual experience. So, if you are interested in a film that contains a scene with the American President having conversation with the Russian President on the phone which feels very much like they are talking like a married couple having an argument; then this is the film for you.