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498. Frame Rate: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Feat. Clint Gage)
🕑 Added 2022-06-20 13:01:05 +0000 UTC
The year is 1964. Cold War tensions are high. “Funnyman” Stanley Kubrick tells an entire generation: “Wait, I can make this hilarious.” Somehow, this movie is a classic. Three dorks, including our longtime friend, novelist and comedian Clint Gage, sit down to talk about what makes this dark comedy work and what doesn’t hold up.
Features:
Clint Gage: https://twitter.com/clintgage
Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP
Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty
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Comments
Michael Molla
I think the subtitle ("How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb") refers to the attitude of the men in the War Room at the end of the movie. As you have observed, they seem delighted with the idea of being locked in a mineshaft for a hundred years with an overabundance of sexy ladies.
Arlo
I would assume the black and white and mediocre effects aren’t meant in reference to older movies, because at this point he hasn’t shot a color movie except for Spartacus which is a big technicolor epic and a project he took over early in production. 2001 looks better because it was developed as an effects driven spectacle, this is a comedy and has pretty standard early 60s rear projection and effects. Also: “Mein fuhrer I can walk” is very much on theme, eugenicist mineshaft society and nuclear apocalypse being fulfillment of the nazi project, miraculously healing Strangelove. Obviously that’s not what Sellers was thinking but it’s probably why it was fashioned into the ending (also explaining why he’s the title character)
Arlo
If we’re talking about critical depictions of war and the through line to modern stuff like Generation Kill, the key text in Kubrick is Paths of Glory which is *incredibly* modern. Also I would argue that Barry Lyndon is his actual funniest movie, it’s not as broad and comedy-forward as Strangelove but there’s more comedy in that than any of his other stuff outside this (and maybe Lolita) and it all lands more consistently.
