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
I was fourteen when the film was first released, and "Dr. Strangelove" treated the things that scared the pants off us all with such irreverence that it drew nervous laughter from us all, a release and a relief. Suddenly, after "Strangelove," gag gifts appeared, such as "In Case of Nuclear Attack, Break Glass . . . Then Kiss Your Ass Goodbye." In a way, though the film was intended as an anti-war statement, because Kubrick enabled us to laugh about the unthinkable--the utter and complete destruction of the planet--we could go on. Without that pent-up tension and compressed fear, much of the humor isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as when the movie first played in theaters. But it remains a cinematic masterpiece that now can be appreciated for performances even more than the black humor.
Video:
As I've already discussed, the video transfer to my eye isn't substantially better than the first Special Edition, but I should mention that the first version was pretty darned good. There's only a slight graininess in spots and very, very few flickers of dirt here and there. By and large, the black-and-white picture is high contrast in both the 40th Anniversary Edition and in the previous Special Edition. But in low-lit scenes, the picture seems slightly darker on the new transfer.
Audio:
Audio options are Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, the original Mono, and French language, with subtitles in English, French, Chinese, Korean, and Thai. (The first Special Edition also offered spoken language options in Spanish and Portuguese). The sound quality is decent, but it will take a better ear than mine to tell the difference between the DTS, 5.1, and Mono options.
Extras:
This two-disc set features the movie on one disc and all extras on the other. The good news is that the documentaries from the previous Special Edition are included, with new features added. The repeats are a 15-minute documentary on "The Art of Stanley Kubrick: from Short Films to Strangelove" and a 45-minute feature on "Inside the Making of 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 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.
The new extras aren't quite as good, though they're still nice to have. There's 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 "Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat," another feature made especially for this 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. The third new feature is 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. Rounding out the extras are talent files, previews (curiously, while the trailer for "Fail Safe" was included on the original Special Edition, it's missing here—and "Fail Safe" was a film produced at the same time, a film which Kubrick sued so that "Strangelove" could debut first), an art gallery, and a superslick embossed cover 16-page booklet with a new introduction by Ebert and plenty of photos. This is an oversized booklet that fits inside the slipcase, but not the keepcase. Oddly enough, there's no insert detailing the scene selections as there was in the earlier version.
Bottom Line:
Though "Dr. Strangelove" isn't as shocking now or as laugh-out-loud hilarious as it was when it helped release megatons of nervous tension in Cold War audiences, 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.
Video:
As I've already discussed, the video transfer to my eye isn't substantially better than the first Special Edition, but I should mention that the first version was pretty darned good. There's only a slight graininess in spots and very, very few flickers of dirt here and there. By and large, the black-and-white picture is high contrast in both the 40th Anniversary Edition and in the previous Special Edition. But in low-lit scenes, the picture seems slightly darker on the new transfer.
Audio:
Audio options are Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, the original Mono, and French language, with subtitles in English, French, Chinese, Korean, and Thai. (The first Special Edition also offered spoken language options in Spanish and Portuguese). The sound quality is decent, but it will take a better ear than mine to tell the difference between the DTS, 5.1, and Mono options.
Extras:
This two-disc set features the movie on one disc and all extras on the other. The good news is that the documentaries from the previous Special Edition are included, with new features added. The repeats are a 15-minute documentary on "The Art of Stanley Kubrick: from Short Films to Strangelove" and a 45-minute feature on "Inside the Making of 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 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.
The new extras aren't quite as good, though they're still nice to have. There's 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 "Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat," another feature made especially for this 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. The third new feature is 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. Rounding out the extras are talent files, previews (curiously, while the trailer for "Fail Safe" was included on the original Special Edition, it's missing here—and "Fail Safe" was a film produced at the same time, a film which Kubrick sued so that "Strangelove" could debut first), an art gallery, and a superslick embossed cover 16-page booklet with a new introduction by Ebert and plenty of photos. This is an oversized booklet that fits inside the slipcase, but not the keepcase. Oddly enough, there's no insert detailing the scene selections as there was in the earlier version.
Bottom Line:
Though "Dr. Strangelove" isn't as shocking now or as laugh-out-loud hilarious as it was when it helped release megatons of nervous tension in Cold War audiences, 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.
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[release]12974[/release]