Preview

Dr. Strangelove Movie Review

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
651 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dr. Strangelove Movie Review
The ‘60s was an eventful decade for the American public. Civil Rights, Hippies, Vietnam, the Apollo missions, The Cuban Missile Crisis, Student Protests culminated a decade that had some reasons to please, but many more to annoy. In the backdrop to all this chaos, Stanley Kubrick directed and produced Dr. Strangelove, a satirical film on the threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Dr. Strangelove, one of Stanley Kubrick’s great directorial ventures, was released in 1964, when the anti-Soviet, anti-Communist propaganda in America was at a relative peak. While Brig. General Ripper gives arbitrary orders to dispatch nuclear weapons on the Soviet Union, The President and his War Cabinet learn that the Soviet Union’s Doomsday Device will automatically set off reactions that would annihilate the whole world in case nuclear weapons were dropped on it. What follows the potentially apocalyptic circumstances is a hilarious treat full of ironies, Peter Sellers’ triple role (as a frantic President, an ex-Nazi scientist, and a nervous British Group Captain cajoling an American General) coupled with the idiosyncratic acting of George C. Scott (as General Buck Turgidson) and Slim Pickens (as Major T.J Kong).

Dr. Strangelove isn’t among today’s expensive, tasteless Sci-Fi films, and especially because it was released in 1964. Instead, the movie was shot in three principle settings; The President’s War room, Brigadier General Jack Ripper’s office, and the inside of a B-52 bomber. The movie doesn’t have too many movements either; President Muffley and his Cabinet remain seated around a table, Major T.J. Kong and his flight crew is confined to the cockpit, and General Ripper and Group Captain Mandrake converse inside an office.

Nevertheless, Dr. Strangelove never even allowed an impatient teenager like myself to get up from the couch and refill my popcorn. Part of that was based on the fact that I was watching the world’s leaders stop a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    This film has a unique cinematography because it is set so far in the future. The way the director uses subtle special effects makes the audience feel like that could actually happen and not a cheesy made up idea. The effects in The Minority Report are much sharper and believable than the effects seen in Dr. Strangelove. In Dr. Strangelove, it is quite easy to tell that the bomb carrier is not flying above a bunch of trees and rivers but in fact is hanging in front a green screen of some sort. However, in The Minority Report, it is much more believable to think that John Anderton is watching a hologram of his son in his apartment. We also see a difference in the coloring and lighting of the two films. Dr. Strangelove is a black and white film, which makes the use of lighting more difficult because you have to guess what areas will come out darker than others in such a limited scale of color. When John Anderton is sitting in the dark watching films of his…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    If you have ever seen this movie you will automatically know that it is a very strange movie.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Cold War era of communist witch hunts, and blacklisting, Hollywood executives had even more pressing worries: the imminent death of the studio system and the meteoric rise of television, which subsequently led to a drastic decline in ticket sales. To combat the drop in profits, the studios quickly sought to attract moviegoers—particularly families—from the living room by enhancing and exploiting their medium's technological advantages, namely its relatively large image size and its color format. Not coincidentally, the 1950s were the first decade of drive-in movie theaters, stereo sound, wide-screen formats, and epics shot in glossy color, and a full gamut of movie such as 3-D film technology.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The fifties are sometimes considered a “golden age” within the history of the United States. The economy was booming, Elvis was rocking, and things were looking positive. The Korean War was ending, leading to a time of temporary Cold War “peace.” Jackie Robinson led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six National League pennants and one World Series title as the color barrier was slowly breaking throughout the a Civil Rights movement. The fifties were also a new era for Hollywood. Many movies around the time were about the Cold War and the spread of communism. Others, however, were more so about the teenage years of the baby boomers. One movie that highlighted this time period’s “beta” theme was Rebel Without a Cause.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In particular, General Jack D. Ripper character is humorous and his acting is applaudable. Unrealistically, Ripper was able to order a nuclear attack without obtaining permission from the President which is contentious and strange. There are more candidates for his position that are not as derange as he is. Clearly, through the proper procedures and testings, a deranged General wouldn’t have been appointed to that position. The phrase “precious bodily fluids,” stated by Ripper (General Jack D. Ripper; Dr. Strangelove) was also humorous as all organs are precious, but what’s even more precious is the males bodily fluids. Another character I found to be unbelievable is Major Kong. Near the end of the film, no man is as eager or excited to be riding a bomb as it descends from the plane. I found it to be ridiculous, but nonetheless humorous. Even though this film is mainly about an accidentally nuclear bomb heading its way to Russia, the disbelief of the logic of events and the characters themselves have contributed to the enjoyment of watching this…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roman Polanski’s 1965 thriller film, Repulsion, follows the character of Carol Ledoux, a single manicurist living in London with older sister Helen. The film captivates Carol’s transition from a serene woman to a psychotic who falls victim of insanity Her illness causes her to break apart from reality, endure personality changes, and experience hallucination all leading up to the death of two men. Through the arrangement of mise-en-scene, visual elements, the film helps filmmaker’s captive audiences. The specific combination of acting, sound, and lighting in Repulsion work together to construct tension and terrorize audiences.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Celebrities in the 50s

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Movies were a popular activity in the 1950s. James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Frankie Avalon, and John Wayne were royalty among Americans. Movies such as “Rebel without a Cause”, and “Some Like It Hot” were running ramped over society. James Dean was an American icon starring in movies such as “Rebel Without a Cause” and “East of…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Have you recently had a close encounter?” quote from David Laughlin from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Well everyone who has ever seen the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind has had their own close encounter of some kind. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg and Produced by Colombia Pictures in association with EMI Films. Colombia Pictures the same year is credited with the production of four other films which include Bobby Deerfield staring Al Pacino, The Deadly Triangle staring Dale Robinette, Fun With Dick and Jane staring George Segal and Jane Fonda, and last but not least Confessions from a Holiday Camp staring Robin Askwith.…

    • 2674 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The parallels between the theme of the film and rising fears of communism and related topics of concern during that time are captivating. Communism was an ideology originating in the Soviet Union with the ideas of establishing a classless, stateless society with a common ownership in terms of production. The idea was that the commonly disliked supremacy would be overthrown. Out of WWII came The Cold War, where during the war they were common allies against the Nazi regime, they now had disagreements in how to re-build there individual societies. The Cold War essentially was a competition of sorts between nations in terms of ideologies, industry, military and in terms of progress with space exploration. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik when the U.S wasn't even close to such an incredible feat. This was one of the many catalysts propelling the Cold War that lasted for nearly five decades.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an English film which was classed as a horror when it was released. Now more of a comedy when you watch it, the special effects are nothing compared to the new effects of today. The film is about an English gentleman who wants to releases his inner desires and do all the things he longs to do, so he makes a potion and changes into another character (the evil side of himself - Hyde)…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Fifth Element Essay

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Luc Besson’s 1997 “The Fifth Element,” is a comedic science fiction movie about good versus evil in the distant future set in New York City, while making fun of sci-fi clichés. Although much credit to the film’s success can be attributed to the plot itself, however, the film’s use of mise-en-scène was the real show-stopper. Scenes with flying cars, grotesque monsters, and female heroine all combine to create an entertaining, action-packed film.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Donnie Darko Review

    • 557 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the movie Donnie Darko, there are clear references to psychology. The main character, Donnie Darko is a schizophrenic teen that has potent hallucinations. In the movie Donnie has a psychiatrist, Dr. Thurman, who psychoanalyzes him and provides him with therapy and medication. The entire movie essentially revolves around Donnie Darko’s psychological disorder, schizophrenia. It is his hallucinations of a man in a rabbit costume that keep the movie going. In one point in the movie, Dr. Thurman uses the famous psychological therapy approach called hypnosis on Donnie which helped to reveal some of Donnie’s inner desires, or manifest content.…

    • 557 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Dr Strangelove

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cinematography is defined as “the art or science of making motion pictures” (Merriam Webster). That’s the big picture but there are tons if smaller elements that make it possible to make a movie at all. Dr. Strangelove, as typical of any film, uses a multitude of these elements including different types of lenses, various angles and levels for various characters, and certain distances in camera shots.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The director Darren Aronofsky, who is famous for renowned films such as Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, also fits on this spectrum, although not somewhere in the middle. In this paper, I argue that although Aronofsky’s films may have several themes intricately woven throughout, one reoccurring theme is his anti-drug and anti-medicine standpoint. A few critics claim that his movies are not…

    • 5054 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mars Attacks! Review

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Source Materials: The constant struggle between war and politics makes this movie a classic bumbling mess of emgo fighting over what they consider to be right. The 1950’s science fiction focuses on how these peoples egos were created in a time of growing personalities.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays