Reviews and Critical Response

Dr. Strangelove has been hailed as a cultural breakthrough just as often as it has been condemned as a sick, traitorous, and defeatist joke.1 There was an extreme polarity of views expressed about the film and its methods, with a few commentators walking the middle line between horror and enthusiasm.2

Homer Jack’s 1964 review of the film, “The Strange Love of Dr. Strangelove: A Movie Review” focuses on the treatment of the film; specifically the “unblinking nihilism” and “sadistic humor” featured in Kubrick’s film.3 Nora Sayre reminisced about the film in Running Time: Films of the Cold War, pointing out that “laughing at death was a novel experience.”4 A review in Newsweek also applauded Kubrick’s satiric point of view, stating “Kubrick, and his bitter satire, stands as eloquent testimony not only to the possibilities of intelligent comment in film, but to the great great freedom which moviemakers have, even if most of them have not dared to use it.”5 Lewis Mumford likewise gave the film praise, stating “this nightmare eventuality that we have concocted for out children is nothing but a crazy fantasy, by nature as horribly crippled and dehumanized as Dr. Strangelove himself.”6

Opposing these glowing reviews were a series of angry statements like those voiced by Bosley Crowther, a film reviewer for the New York Times.7 Crowther called Dr. Strangelove the “most shattering sick joke I’ve ever come across.”8 He considered the film to be “a bit too contemptuous of our defense establishment for my comfort and taste.”9 This stance was further backed by the U.S. Air Force, who angrily challenged the movie’s basic premise — the idea of an attack order that could not be countermanded.10 Kubrick had to include a disclosure during the opening credits of the movie in order to prevent any backlash from the United States Air Force. The disclosure is as follows:

“IT IS THE STATED POSITION OF THE U.S AIR FORCE THAT THEIR SAFEGUARDS WOULD PREVENT THE OCCURRENCE OF SUCH EVENTS AS ARE DEPICTED IN THIS FILM. FURTHERMORE IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT NONE OF THE CHARACTERS PORTRAYED IN THIS FILM ARE MEANT TO REPRESENT ANY REAL PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD.” 11

Next: Bibliography
Previous: Stanley Kubrick

  1. Margot A Henriksen, Dr. Strangelove’s America : Society and Culture in the Atomic Age (Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1997), 327.[↩]
  2. Henriksen, Dr. Strangelove’s America , 327.[↩]
  3. Henriksen, 328.[↩]
  4. Henriksen, 328.[↩]
  5. Henriksen, 329.[↩]
  6. Henriksen, 329.[↩]
  7. Henriksen, 329.[↩]
  8. Henriksen, 329.[↩]
  9. Henriksen, 330.[↩]
  10. Paul S. Boyer, Fallout : A Historian Reflects an America’s Half-Century Encounter with Nuclear Weapons (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1998), 100.[↩]
  11. Boyer, Fallout, 100.[↩]
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