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

MPAA Rating

Theatrical Release Date

Jan 28, 1964

Genre(s)

Satire
Classic Comedies
Black Comedy
Peter Sellers
World War II
Cold War
Anti-War Films
Columbia Classics
Special Editions

Rating (Stars)

Description

Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold-war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious bodily fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so- called "Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S. president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart. Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr. Strangelove; George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose presidential advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about "acceptable losses." With dialogue ("You can't fight here! This is the war room!") and images (Slim Pickens's character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of our cultural vocabulary, Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics' lists of the all-time best. --Jeff Shannon

Director

Stanley Kubrick/ David Naylor

Stars

Peter Sellers
George C. Scott
Sterling Hayden
Keenan Wynn
Slim Pickens

Running Time

93 minutes

Original Price

$14.94

Current Value

$4.50

DVD Features

Black & White
Closed-captioned
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Widescreen
NTSC
1.33:1