Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #291 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-02-18
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Black & White, Collector's Edition, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious bodily fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so-called "Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the US president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart. Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr. Strangelove; George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose presidential advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about "acceptable losses." With dialogue ("You can't fight here! This is the war room!") and images (Slim Pickens' character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of our cultural vocabulary, Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics' lists of the all-time best. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com --This text refers to another version of this video.

DVD Description
Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy about a group of war-eager military men who plan a nuclear apocalypse is both funny and frightening - and seems as relevant today as ever. Through a series of military and political accidents, two psychotic generals - U.S. Air Force Commander Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) and Joint Chief of Staff "Buck" Turgidson (George C. Scott) trigger an ingenious, irrevocable scheme to attack Russia's strategic targets with nuclear bombs. The brains behind the scheme belong to Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers), a wheelchair-bound nuclear scientist who has bizarre ideas about man's future. The president (also Sellers) is helpless to stop the bombers, as is Captain Mandrake (Sellers once again). Dr. Strangelove is truly a brilliant film classic.

Special Features
Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital Mono
Featurette Inside The Making Of Strangelove
Featurette The Art Of Stanley Kubrick
Interview With Peter Sellers And George C Scott
Theatrical Trailer
Press Kit
Filmographies
Interactive Menu
Scene Selection
Arabic\Bulgarian\Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hindi\Hungarian\Icelandic\Italian\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish\Turkish

Customer Reviews

"Gentlemen, You Can't Fight In Here, This Is The War Room!"
"In the days after it first opened in early 1964, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" took on the enchanted aura of a film that had gotten away with something. Johnson was in the White House, the Republicans were grooming Goldwater, both sides took the Cold War with grim solemnity, and the world was learning to be comfortable with the term "nuclear deterrent," which meant that if you blow me up, I'm gonna blow you up, and then we'll all be dead. "Better dead than Red," some said. Others said the opposite. The choice was not appealing. The Bomb overshadowed global politics. It was a kind of ultimate hole card in a game where the stakes were life on earth." Roger Ebert

I purchased the 40th Anniversary CD and this is my third or forth viewing, but "Dr. Strangelove" seems fresh and undated - an irreverant dangerous satire. The willingness of the Director to follow the film to its logical conclusion - nuclear annihilation - has a touch that today's happy-ending films would never condone. Its black and white photography puts a face on its political messages.

Commanding a wing of the Strategic Air Command, General Ripper orders the B-52 bombers under his command to attack the Soviet Union. When the British military attache in one of his three roles, Peter Sellers, tries to stop him, Ripper explains the Commie plot to taint our water supply and deplete our "precious bodily fluids." He won't even discuss the re-call code. Eventually, he realizes he will be caught and he ends his personal game. Events on the Army Base are interspersed with the B-52 nearest the intended goal, and with the War Room in the Pentagon. President Muffley learns of these events from Dr Strangelove and the Doomsday Machine. It appears that neither the Doomsday Machine nor one of the U.S. bombers can be turned from their missions.

"The movie's screenplay, by Terry Southern with help from the Director Stanley Kubrick turn this scenario into a dark comedy of errors, illuminated by flashes of brilliant satire. Some of the dialogue has entered the language - "precious bodily fluids," of course, and also the way the dim-witted Col. Bat Guano (Keenan Wynn) hints darkly of Commie "preverts." The scene at the telephone booth between Guano and the British attache, who does not have the correct small change to call the White House and save the world, is one of the movie's best-constructed gags." Roger Ebert

The acting in this film is superb, in fact it would be very difficult to top this crew. Sterling Hayden is the epitome of a paranoiac Gen. Ripper. George C. Scott, however, steals the movie and is brilliant as, Gen. Buck Turgidson, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who chews gum, makes faces, and breaks one piece of bad news after another to the President. And Peter Sellers, as President,as Dr Strangelove and RAF Group Captain Mandrake has a series of roles that portray the epitome of humor, satire and acting. Maj. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens), who promises his crew there's going to be promotions and decorations all around is perfect in the role of the pilot. His exit from the movie, riding a bomb like a bronco, remains one of the most famous moments in modern film, and is my favorite scene from the movie.

"When you consider the history of motion pictures, certain watershed films leap to mind -- productions which have left their mark on the craft. Without a doubt, one of those is Stanley Kubrik's 1964 masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove (or, as it's subtitled, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). As political satire, few movies -- even those as incisive as the hilariously vicious 1992 release Bob Roberts -- come close to this level of accomplishment. In the case of Dr. Strangelove, the barbs and quips (both subtle and obvious) hold up as well today as they did thirty years ago." Bosley Crowther

Stanley Kubrick's film opened with the force of a pail of cold water, right in the face. What Kubrick's Cold War satire showed was not men at the mercy of machines, but machines at the mercy of men. This film shows that it is possible to laugh and to laugh continuously at a shocker of a film that is filled with black satire. It is only when Slim Pickens is riding the bomb do we realizae that this could be real. There But For The Grace Of God, Go We.

Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 08-0507

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Another film that's a product of its own insane hype
Now I know this is a classic, and a supposed masterpiece and all that but I'm going to have to say, quite respectfully, that this film is a little bit overrated, by my reckoning. The narrative seems to be rushed through by Kubrik, his need for the film's suspense to hinge on the all important deadline set by the hastily arranged war cabinet taking clear precedence over characterisation. The film becomes heavily reliant upon the genius that was Peter Sellers, and apart from a quite masterful script, and some nicely conceived scenes, it actually has a strange feel of cheapness about it to me. Right up until the final bomber dispatch scene, (which is a superior movie scene, I do not contest) I can't get away from the feeling this is made in a studio, and one that has a converted warehouse feel about it. I'm not against the satire of it in the slightest, it was a great idea that's right up my own avenue, however I can't help thinking that the greatness of the idea, its expedience in light of the political landscape of that very year, and the assumed intellectualism of the piece is blinding many people to the fact it has serious flaws. Okay? There, wasn't too painful, was it.

NO FIGHTING IN HERE, THIS IS THE WAR ROOM
I had heard plenty of things about this saying how good this is and so I watched it last night and agree with what people say about the film. It's funny. Stanley Kubrick's celebrated black comedy about an "accidental" nuclear attack was nominated for four 1964 Academy Awards. Created during the time when the paranoia of the Cold War was at its peak, the film still seems surprisingly relevant today. Convinced the Commies are polluting America's "precious bodily fluids", a crazed General (Sterling Hayden) orders a surprise nuclear air strike on the USSR. His aide Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) furiously attempts to figure out a recall code to stop the bombing. Meanwhile the U.S. President (Sellers again) gets on the hot line to convince the drunken Soviet premier that the impending attack is a silly mistake, while the President's advisor (and ex - Nazi) scientist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers once more) confirms the existence of the dreaded Doomsday Machine - a new secret Soviet retaliatory device guaranteed the human race once and for all!.

I thought one thing let it down and that was it seemed to cut dead at the end but it was funny and most of the film was improvised which shows that the actors were clearly allowed freedom on the film and when Kubrick got given the film he thought it sounded so stupid and far fetched that there was no other way to do it other then a comedy. This is a another film worthy of 5 stars in Kubrick's filmography which included 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange & Eyes Wide Shut this.

All in all a good comedy and funny but serious enough not to be slapstick comedy and it's worth at least one watch and Kubrick fans this is essential viewing. The film is 90 mins long and black and white but don't let that put you off watching one of the best films ever made.

Thank you for reading my review.