On this website you can discover some critics about movies or anecdotes about the cinema in a more general way.

For example, in Alien directed by Ridley Scott, do you know that the director say nothing about the scene where the alien come from the belly of the astronaut? or that Leonardo DiCaprio swim in a little swimming pool at the end of Titanic ?

Discover also new movies with the critics that I wrote or maybe it gives you the desire to see the movie in question.

For my first post, I want you to discover my critic of Doctor Strangelove, the famous movie of Stanley Kubrick.

A disturbed vision of the Cold War.

Two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kubrick decided to come out a black comedy about Cold War, Doctor Strangelove. 

The story is about a paranoid general, Jack Ripper, who decided to send an US bomb to the USSR. In this context, the US president gathered the US officers and also the USSR’s ambassador to solve the conflict without nuclear bomb. 

However in this comedy, you have different issues as the soviet automatic nuclear weapon in case of attack, really hard to control, or the impossibility to get the planes back. Stanley Kubrick and Victor Lyndon produced the movie. The society of distribution is Columbia Pictures and Hawk Films LTD. 

This dark comedy is based on a book called Red Alert, a thriller written by Peter Georges, the co-scriptwriter of the movie. Kubrick had collaborated with him for the script, even if Peter Georges wasn’t satisfied by the result. He doesn’t like the satirical side of the movie. I think it’s important to know that Kubrick didn’t write the script (except for his first movies), but he is inspired by books and take his story from it. 

Peter Sellers, the main actor, plays the President of the USA, general Lionel Mandrake and Doctor Strangelove. This movie is essentially based on this actor in reason of his acting, and for these roles Kubrick needed a particular men. They have already cooperated together for Lolita in 1962. The other actors are George C. Scott, as General « Buck » Turgidson and Sterling Hayden, as General Ripper. 

Kubrick decided to film in black and white whereas he had already turned in colour, I think it’s because of the  war context. Indeed, the movie begins with the fault of a general and goes on with the general “Buck” Turgidson who wants to attack the USSR. 

Kubrick did the reference to the Nazi engineers employed by the US and USSR army. They helped the USA in creating different rockets. This is symbolizing with the character of Doctor Strangelove, who is a scientific, ex-Nazi and he has a particular vision of the world. 

The movie is zany with the scene of Doctor Strangelove, when he tries to stop his Nazi compulsion. It’s also a comedy through the politicians’ behaviour, with for instance the physical flows of Ripper or the sensitivity of the USSR chief. However Doctor Strangelove is a disturbing movie too. Kubrick shows us a world ruled by incompetents. This director likes sharing his vision of the world. For exemple, Lolita is precedent movie make us consider the relationship between a young girl and a men. 

The violence is present in this movie, but this is showed a ludicrous side. For example, the scene of nuclear explosion with We’ll Meet Again in background music, it’s a disturbing way to show the violence. 

This movie is incredible by the genius of Kubrick, to imagine a strange world where the nuclear weapon is an easy solution as a button to push.

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