Man oh man, Doctor Strangelove is a great film. I remember in my first year film class, it was the only piece on the syllabus that struck the class dumb. A whole class full of would be critics and cultural scholars couldn't think of a thing to add - just a masterpiece.

It really is the definitive black comedy - never before has self induced mass-extinction been so hilarious. The performances of Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Slim Pickens are brilliant. The sense of authenticity and verisimilitude is utterly believable. And the tension, induced by that understated martial drumming in the background, is just about intolerable.

And black comedy of course really is the only way such subject could be treated. Around the same time, a similar films called Failsafe was released, with Walter Matthau. Unlike Strangelove it played things completely straight. I remember it being gripping, but it had no lasting value; the reason being, once the credits rolled, it was impossible to take the scenario seriously. Were we <i>really,/i> to believe there was <i>no</> way to recall the bombers? As the politicians of this film (on both sides) are portrayed as inherently enlightened, reasonable men - leaving us to wonder how such eminently reasonable people could have gotten us into such an insane mess.

As a satire, <i>Strangelove</i> doesn't require that kind suspension of disbelief. It has no such faith in the sanity of our leaders or institutions Lunatics all! Not of them understands the enormity of their power any more than the rest of us. Which, paradoxically, feels closer to the truth.

Because the Cold War really was that crazy, there really were guys like Jack D. Ripper and Buck Turgidson on the US general chiefs of staff. General Curtis Lemay, having made his name with the firebombing of Tokyo and the charmingly named Operation Starvation, did indeed advise JFK to bomb the Soviets first during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The other side was no better: they had Joseph Stalin. . .

(Yes I know, dead in '53. But imagine if HE'd lived 'till '63. . .)

That's what the world was like at the time. The power to destroy the world, in the hands of men (all men) who half wanted to do it. Facing down enemies no one understood or could predict. In this context, even Turgidson's concept of the "mine-shaft" gap is crazily plausible: what if the Russkies <i>did </i> spend all their time in their own mines arming and mobilizing and waiting to emerge to conquer their neighbours? It's not so crazy: ask the Finns!

How did we get to such a ridiculous place? Alas, humanity's gadgets evolve faster than its brains. We had a lucky escape, but now, as climate change appears irreversible, we may yet get to do ourselves in. The only way we can really confront insanity on that level is through satire.

(And the best thing about it? It was all true:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true)