Dr. Strangelove (Blu-ray)

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Audio:
The featured audio is English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, though, as with the 40th Anniversary SE DVD, the remastered original Mono is also included, along with French Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Subtitles are in English, English SDH, French, Arabic, and Dutch. I think this was the picture that Kubrick made, but as with the video, if it's deliberately a little unpolished to make it seem as if it came right out of the newsreels and headlines, it's still not a showpiece for what HD can do in terms of sound and picture. The bass doesn't have much rumble, and the timbre isn't all that full or robust. Then again, when you play the original Mono you realize that the TrueHD is indeed an improvement.

Extras:
The featured Blu-ray exclusive is a PIP pop-up trivia track that incorporates commentaries and behind-the-scenes shots. Among the talking heads featured are Thomas Schelling, whose article on the novel Red Alert sparked Kubrick's interest; Richard A. Clark, author of Against All Enemies and a counter-terrorism and command/control systems expert; Daniel Ellsberg, famed consultant to the JFK administration and a Department of Defense veteran; Prof. George Quester from the University of Maryland, an expert on nuclear proliferation, deterrence, and diplomacy; and Prof. David Alan Rosenberg from Temple University, a historian whose area of expertise is nuclear strategy. It's an above-average track, but you can see by the talking heads that it's also pretty theoretical in nature, though there are a few historical anecdotes. Also, older machines will experience pauses as the PIP clips load. This can get a bit tedious.

The good news is that documentaries from the previous Special Editions are included here. Included is a 15-minute documentary on "The Art of Stanley Kubrick: from Short Films to Strangelove" and a 45-minute feature on "Inside Dr. Strangelove." Though Jones is the only "star" interviewed and there's some overlapping, the longer feature is really well done and includes fascinating behind-the-scenes information and footage. There are clips from cast members' home movies showing the photographer's plane that was "pulled over" by U.S. fighters when it inadvertently flew over a secret air base in the arctic, and the "Dr. Strangelove" written on the side of the plane made them seem like spies. There are stills from the most over-the-top scene in the movie--a pie-throwing melée in the war room that had to be cut because the actors looked like they were having too much fun. And there are shots of Kubrick and Scott by a chess board, with the revelation that Kubrick felt he had to beat the temperamental actor at a game he loved in order to earn his respect. If the featurette is disappointing, it's only because of its brevity and because it deals with just the early films: "Paths of Glory," "Lolita," and "Spartacus." Another repeat from the first edition are split-screen interviews with Sellers and Scott. These seven-minute snippets have no real content value, but are interesting as behind-the-scenes moviemaking relics. Split screen interviews were made so that television "interviewers" could appear to have exclusive, spontaneous conversations with the stars.

Included from the 40th Anniversary SE DVD is a long interview with former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. McNamara is shown on camera answering questions from an off-camera interviewer. Predictably, it's dry, and there's some overlapping with the other new feature. But McNamara goes into great detail about the strategies behind moves the U.S. made during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, including the revelation that in 1992 they found out that the Russians actually DID have 160 nuclear warheads in Cuba, when at the time the U.S. didn't believe they had any. I can picture political science and history classes watching this extra with relish, and also "No Fighting in the War Room Or: Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat," another feature made especially for the 40th Anniversary reissue. Though the territory is plenty familiar, there will be a number of viewers for whom footage of schoolkids in bomb drills and an explanation of the historical context behind the film will make "Dr. Strangelove" seem as surreal as it is absurd. Then there's a tribute to Peter Sellers, featuring interviews with talking heads and, best of all, clips from Sellers' other films--including "Super Secret Service" (1953), his first film, where he established a pattern of playing multiple characters that would continue throughout his career. Among the interviewees, incidentally, is Roger Ebert.

This is a DigitalBook release, and the case is actually a 32-page book with the Blu-ray held in a plastic "grabber" on the inside back cover. Richard Tanne contributes an introduction to the film, while there are pages that pay tribute to Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Stanley Kubrick, followed by an essay by Travis Baker, three photo-reduced script pages, and a good amount of photos.

This Blu-ray is BD-Live enabled, which (and I quote from the Sony press release) allows "users to get connected and go beyond the disc via an Internet-connected Blu-ray player. Download exclusive content, register for rewards, give feedback through our survey and more!"

Bottom Line:
"Dr. Strangelove" helped audiences release megatons of nervous tension during the Cold War, and it's still a taut and humorous drama that's driven by sharp satire, career performances, and black-and-white images that perfectly complement the good guy/bad guy mentality of the era. Now, with a nut-case in North Korea threatening nuclear war, "Dr. Strangelove" has become alarmingly relevant again. Nothing is Fail-Safe, except nuclear disarmament.

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