STRANGELOVE

Dr. Strangelove is    a hilarious, wildly satirical    film that is close , in my opinion, to being Stanley Kubrick's masterwork. The direction and performances border on genius and there is no doubt that it is one of the greatest motion pictures ever made.

The one line which lingered in my mind after the film was over was " You can't fight in here , this is the war room ! " This sentence is uttered by the U.S president when   a government general is wrestling with the Russian ambassador in a military room. This line sums up the film perfectly. No aspect of " Dr . Strangelove " is left without a hilarious comment in the middle , no subject examined here is left with it's dignity. And it makes for tremendous viewing.

Without giving much away, the plot of the movie deals with an insane general's efforts to create a nuclear holocaust, that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

Although Dr. Strangelove is primarily a comedy , it simultaneously makes a    very thrilling film. It successfully binds razor sharp satire with edge of your seat tension, and it's hard to see how anyone but Kubrick could have pulled it off. A number of factors make this movie a cut above the rest. One of them , perhaps the most important is that the   characters are very well developed. There is an excellent introduction to the distrurbed General Ripper, where we get a full insight into his disgust for " Commies " as he broodingly smokes a cigar and carries out his grim orders. There is no doubt , this is the bad guy. We are introduced to General " Buck ", an old-fashioned patriot who's national pride sometimes gets the better of him. Through the President's discussions with the Russian prime-minister it is clear that he is a nervous and perhaps in-capable man. There are a whole host of supporting characters , including Captain Mandrake and Dr. Strangelove himself, who each have their own quirks and characteristics. The audience is familiar and involved with the people that are involved in this mad situation.

Kubrick's direction here is absolutely flawless, from the desperate squabbling of the politicians in the war room to the memorable last moments.   Although the camera-work is less flashy than " 2001 : A Space Odyssey " or " A Clockwork Orange ", there are still some amazing touches that could only have been conceived by the master himself.

The narrative in " Dr. Strangelove " is wondrously inventive and drives the film to the very end. There are too many fantastic one liners to list , but almost every one had me in fits of laughter. The scene where President Muffley is on the phone to the obviously drunk Russian prime-minister,   saying how   sorry he is that Russia is about to be bombed to pieces will go down as one of the funniest ever put on film.

Performances? It is hard to find adjectives to describe the sheer brilliance of Peter Seller's performances. Yes, performance's. As Captain Mandrake , President Muffley and Dr . Strangelove , Sellar's delivers three entirely different characters and delivers them with pure perfection , each character sending totally different emotions to the audience.   In my opinion, his best performance of the three is the mumbling, un-easy president. The contrast between each of his creations is remarkable, as if each was played by a different actor.

George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden are also wonderful as   General " Buck " and   General D. Ripper.

The famous final scene is the one which lingers in the mind for me. The catastrophic imagery accompanied by the drifting song " We'll meet again " is a wonderful, blackly humorous ending.

" Dr Strangelove " is a fantastic film that works on different levels, and features some of the finest character acting of the last century.