Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

An unfocused, unfunny black comedy, Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb details the chaos that ensues after a nuclear attack is mistakenly triggered against the Soviet Union – with the film following a host of disparate figures, including George C. Scott’s Buck Turgidson, Sterling Hayden’s Jack D. Ripper, and Peter Sellers’ title character, as they attempt to neutralize the threat. It’s a promising setup that’s employed to curiously (and consistently) uninvolving effect by director Stanley Kubrick, as the filmmaker, working from a script cowritten with Terry Southern and Peter George, proves unable to wholeheartedly capture the viewer’s interest right from the get-go – with the movie suffering from a stagy, talky vibe that grows more and more problematic as time progresses. And while the film admittedly does fare relatively well in its war-room sequences – it’s hard, for example, not to get a kick out of the President’s ongoing phone conversations with the Russian leader – Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb suffers from an erratic and thoroughly meandering narrative that’s rife with scenes and interludes of a palpably pointless nature. (This is especially true of everything involving Hayden’s unhinged character.) There’s little doubt, as well, that the movie’s many attempts at comedy fall hopelessly (and aggressively) flat, with Kubrick’s decision to seemingly give Sellers free reign contributing heavily to Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb‘s atmosphere of almost aggressive triviality (ie the majority of this stuff is distressingly free of relevance or even laughs). By the time the (admittedly iconic) finale rolls around, Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb has confirmed its place as a decidedly underwhelming entry within Kubrick’s increasingly spotty body of work – with the film’s place as a bona fide classic nothing short of baffling.

*1/2 out of ****