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General		Extras
Category	Black Comedy/Satire	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 1.33:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1963	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	90:33 Minutes	Other Extras	Filmographies - Cast & Crew  Photo Gallery Poster Gallery
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Stanley Kubrick
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar	Starring	Peter Sellers George C. Scott Sterling Hayden Keenan Wynn Slim Pickens
Case	Brackley
RRP	$39.95	Music	Laurie Johnson

    As the Russians manage to shoot down three of the bombers, Mandrake works out the stop code and transmits it to the remaining thirty-one bombers. Thirty of them acknowledge and stand down, but one of the bombers is unable to acknowledge and continues toward its target, with its cowboy pilot, Major Kong (Slim Pickens), fighting hard to deliver the bomb to his target. As he rides one of the plane's bombs to ground zero, much like a wild bronco, Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) espouses a plan to the President to go underground so that the American way of life can be saved. He also specifies that there be a ratio of ten women for every man, all of whom should be chosen for their sexual traits, given the large amount of work the small proportion of men will be doing. Just while I am on the subject, this would be moderately likely to create a situation in which many humans became inbred without the parents even knowing about it, which is not an ideal situation for the continued survival of the human race.

    All of the minor plot problems aside, Dr. Strangelove (Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb) is a film worthy of investigation, even if only for curiosity purposes. It may be nearing forty years in age, but the satire of the American anti-foreigner paranoia that it revolves around is still just as funny now as it would have been in 1963, if not more so. Personally, I found the ending of the film to be slightly unsatisfying, but this is a relatively minor quibble when taken in the context of the rest of the film. The best moment is certainly listening to Jack Ripper's crazed explanations for his activation of the bombers, but overall, the whole story reads like the most deranged sort of Ronald Reagan fantasy:

    "Everything is falling in place. It can't be much longer now. Ezekiel says fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God's people. That must mean that they'll be destroyed by nuclear weapons. They exist now, and they never did in the past... Ezekiel tells us that Gog, the nation that will lead all of the other powers of darkness against Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn't seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly." Now you tell me: is it safe to have a nut who says something like this (in this case Reagan) running a nuclear power? If your answer is yes, then this film may make you change your mind. If not, then you'll probably find the portrayals of the various wacky characters to be somewhat prophetic.

Video

    The black and white colour scheme is mostly very clear and vibrant, but on some occasions such as the early moments in Kong's departure from the hold of the bomber, it became a little indistinct and murky. This could be something to do with the way the film was produced, but it probably also has something to do with the way the film has aged. There was what is either a minor MPEG artefact, or a video artefact, around 80:38, which consisted of a pixellated line across the film. Otherwise, MPEG artefacts were not noticed at any point in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some shimmer in objects such as overhead lights, particularly in the War Room, but they were not especially distracting from the film. Film artefacts were a significant problem, with black spots appearing in many frames, becoming a little distracting at times. Given how old the film is, however, they stayed at a perfectly acceptable level throughout.

    The subtitles have little correlation with the dialogue, with significant amounts of the dialogue not showing up in the subtitles or sometimes with the sentences being quite different in meaning to what is actually being said.

Audio

    The score music is credited to one Laurie Johnson, but I believe that this person was more than likely responsible solely for the conducting of the music than any composing duties. As far as the compositions were concerned, this score consisted of your standard marching tunes, complete with some baritone humming, and nothing else. It was not especially original or compelling, but complimentary to the onscreen action in spite of its obvious limitations. The use of We'll Meet Again at the end of the film does the story a few favours, and the music that accompanies the action inside Major Kong's B-52 lends a certain sensation of forward movement to footage that does have a slight sense of having been added to flesh out the film. In a nutshell, the music itself may not be especially inspiring or even very original, but it certainly earns ten out of ten for its execution.

    The surround presence is basically non-existent, since this is a mono soundtrack with no redirection to the surrounds as was the case with The Blair Witch Project. The sound is very much central, with restriction to the left and right front speakers, but it has a great fidelity to it. This is an effective soundtrack that truly complements the film.

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Theatrical Trailer

Filmographies - Cast & Crew

Photo Gallery

Poster Gallery

• Theatrical trailer
• Photo Gallery
• Poster Gallery
• Filmographies

    The video quality is good, considering the source material.

    The audio is somewhat raw, but effective enough given the limitations.

    The extras are reasonable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Dean McIntosh (my bio sucks... read it anyway)
April 13, 2000.