Member review

Confused, tired and deciding what I want for lunch were the main amongst a mixture of emotions I experienced while watching Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. A dark humoured comedy about the chaos caused due to a nuclear detonation by a rouge, frankly insane army officer (Sterling Hayden) and the troubles it brings the U.S President (Peter Sellers) and his top, useless army generals.

For a BAFTA award winning film, directed by the 'legendary' Stanley Kubrick I tried my best to enjoy and experience the same love for the film as the many avid film lovers do; However, I sadly, to many people's dismay, felt the film was a disappointment. The narrative was slow and the characters relevance and contribution confusing, perhaps my expectations were too high due to the many 'must watch' reviews and the 'cult classic' mentions.

I do have to mention the fact that the U.S President played by Peter Sellers, the out there British officer played by Peter Sellers and Dr. Strangelove himself played by, you guessed it, Peter Sellers earned my admiration as I did not notice while watching but had to be told afterwards, maybe going into the film knowing this I may have been able to appreciate the film to a better extent. A main issue I have with the film is the context in which it is viewed, I believe the humour and acting may have been greater appreciated around the time of release as the cold war setting would have been more relevant to life at the time.

Overall I think the film is too well praised for its own good, going into the viewing with expectations to watch a brilliant film is a recipe for disappointment in my books; However, I do not rule out ever watching the film again, just not anytime soon.