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United Kingdom, United States · 1964
Rated PG · 1h 35m
Director Stanley Kubrick
Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Genre Comedy, War
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Nuclear war breaks out when a rogue general orders a strike on the U.S.S.R., and it's up to the government to try to avert the end of the world. All sequestered in the "war room," politicians, generals, and diplomats work frantically to stop the nukes before it's too late. Spoiler alert: It's too late.
The ultimate touch of ghoulish humor is when we see the bomb actually going off, dropped on some point in Russia, and a jazzy sound track comes in with a cheerful melodic rendition of "We'll Meet Again Some Sunny Day." Somehow, to me, it isn't funny. It is malefic and sick.
Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf
Kubrick's comic gem sparkles with enduring relevance.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
A masterpiece... The genius of Dr. Strangelove is that it's possible to laugh -- and laugh hard -- while still recognizing the intelligence and insight behind the humor.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Yet some of the laughs come too easy and linger too long; for the film's message to have maximum impact, the laughter has to stick in your throat.
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
More lethal than a nuclear waste dump, Kubrick's komedy at least kills us with laughter... It's one of the greatest - and undoubtably the most hilarious - antiwar statements ever put to film.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
The hard-charging originality of the screenplay—the equivalent of turning "The Hot Zone" into a Farrelly comedy—suggests a deficient legacy of credit to Terry Southern's corner.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Seen after 30 years, Dr. Strangelove seems remarkably fresh and undated - a clear-eyed, irreverant, dangerous satire. And its willingness to follow the situation to its logical conclusion - nuclear annihilation - has a purity that today's lily-livered happy-ending technicians would probably find a way around.
Is ''Dr. Strangelove" Kubrick's best movie? Along with ''Paths of Glory," absolutely.
Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village.