Exploring my DVD collection and my addiction to owning complete sets. Here is some stuff recommended to me.
Dr Strangelove (Or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) (1964) was recommended by +Andrew Craig
It's to watch a DVD I own. Makes me think that they're not just there gathering dust.
Dr Strangelove is a black comedy. The subject matter - all out nuclear war - it's as much on people's minds today as it was when this came out or as when I was growing up in the 80s. It was a real threat and no fill really should have made it the object of ridicule. Except Dr Strangelove proves that that's exactly what should be done. It's a beautifully made film. The humour is exaggerated craziness... but you worry not exaggerated much and it really gets the feeling of "it's funny because it's true."
Peter Sellers plays 3 characters, the insane Strangelove, delightfully overplayed, the President (who with one-sided phonecalls to the soviet Premier allows Sellers to give moments of pure comedy with just him and a prop phone) and a British military man on assignment to a US base. The third is his straightest role in the film, playing against the insane base commander and the over officious solder who captures Seller's character, and it is the role that show his power as a serious actor but with comedy still seeping from him. Throughout the film are other actors in powerful roles as completely deranged men. Well worth a watch, even though history and technology has got us (hopefully) well beyond that point.
Return Recommendation: OK, I'm going to recommend something back. Kubrik, Sellers. I love them both and there are so many options. But I want to go for the straight version of the same story. Released the same year (or if you want, Clooney's more recent live version): Failsafe.
~ DUG.
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