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

Strangelove is the high point for Kubrick’s own dark humour. Although it had surfaced in Lolita (also starring Peter Sellers), here is where you will find it on complete display. Here is where you will find out the most about Kubrick because it is his dark humour that defines him. Since he was notoriously media-shy and rarely gave interviews about his films, fans were left with nothing except his films for explanations into the interiors of Kubrick’s mind. Perhaps that was the way he wanted it to be.

Peter Sellers is a comic genius. Stanley Kubrick is a film making master. When these two quantities collide, you have one amazing film. It may surprise casual film goers to know that Sellers and Kubrick collaborated together on two films in a row and I could have easily seen them working together again because both had a flair for outrageous satire. Sellers plays three roles – each different, each brilliant – and was to play a fourth until he injured himself. Watching the normally reserved and gruff George C. Scott ham it up was one of the other highlights of this film. The always-entertaining Slim Pickens (taking over the fourth role meant for Sellers) was given the important task to perform the most iconic image from the film – riding a nuclear bomb like a horse. Brilliant.

Before Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick had already had three critically acclaimed films under his belt. Now with Dr. Strangelove, he was about to hit his stride in terms of delivering films that would challenge the old film making club and the status quo. Critical acclaim (especially later in his career and after his death) was something of a two-edged sword for Kubrick. His films were becoming so intense, so deep, so thought-provoking, so frustrating for critics and film goers alike that it took years for people to dissect them and realize how monumentally important and brilliant they were. As a result, often nominated for industry awards, he failed to get the recognition that he deserved.

His next two films were of the highest directorial quality and unfortunately so steeped in critical debate and controversy, respectively, that he was once again overlooked for his work. As his life progressed through the 1970s and 1980s, the time between his films grew larger and larger. This, I think is one of the great tragedies of Stanley Kubrick, for it is now only speculation how many more brilliant films he could have completed before his death in 1999.