Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) dir. by Stanley Kubrick

For the purpose of this article, I will simply refer to this film as “Dr. Strangelove”.

A Black Comedy film released on the 29th of January, 1964, this film went on to become a sensational hit because of its satirisation of war. With an average rating of just over nine out of ten on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics’ consensus reads: "Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire remains as funny and razor-sharp today as it was in 1964.”

This is my favourite Stanley Kubrick directed film of all time and I know what you’re going to say “you love horror, why is it not ‘The Shining’?” Well, it is mainly because I think that so much more work went into the script of this film. With “The Shining” although it was not close to the source material, at least it had some basis in it. The book that “Dr. Strangelove” was based on was not nearly enough like the film at all.

Starring the amazing Peter Sellers in the lead roles, this film goes off when it comes to war with my favourite line being “you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!” I have no idea why, but this line cracks me up every single time and I think it is because of the context it is said it and the way it is said.

Roger Ebert stated it was "arguably the best political satire of the century” and it stands as the only comedy film in the Sight and Sound Film Top Ten. The Guardian had this to say about the film:

"There had been nothing in comedy like Dr Strangelove ever before. All the gods before whom the America of the stolid, paranoid 50s had genuflected—the Bomb, the Pentagon, the National Security State, the President himself, Texan masculinity and the alleged Commie menace of water-fluoridation—went into the wood-chipper and never got the same respect ever again.”

From being nominated for some Academy Awards through to its controversies over its sexual themes and its satirisation of war, this film has caused as much of an uproar as it has been appreciated - this is pretty standard for a Kubrick film but this one especially had some backlash because there was talk of war everywhere at that time.

In 1989, “Dr. Strangelove” was entered into the National Film Registry within the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant and has since been able to rile up audiences everywhere with laughter, with satire, with Kubrick’s brilliant directorial skills, with Peter Sellers and his amazing performances and finally, with its cunning message of war probably never really being the answer after all.