Dr. Strangelove....A comedy?!!!

[Bablefish]

I was watching TCM over this weekend when the host mentioned Dr. Strangelove. But when they also mentioned it was a comedy...****!!!! Look I have seen Dr. Strangelove before and I always considered it a drama. I find abosultely no laughs in the film period. What do you think of this slip of the lip.

[rayallen]

I think it's what is usually referred to as a "black comedy", but I've also seen *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* listed as a horror movie, when I would say it's a romance, so it may be one's opinion.

[flash70]

Dr.Strangelove IS a comedy..it is very dark and satirical...modern audiences probably don't respond to the humour the same way it;s original audience would..Time may have dulled it's impact...as for Hunchback......I think that's a case of guilt by association. The first film version was a silent movie starring Lon Chaney..who was known as an early horror film star..and the make-up he devised was pretty memorable and the movie was a big hit. Books on Horror films often mention it because it was a re-make of a Lon Chaney classic. It's like if a Boris Karloff movie was re-done...it might not be a horror film but would probably be regarded as a horror film anyway.

[JeanHagen]

"Dr. Strangelove" is definitely a 'black comedy', which becomes funnier and funnier as you know more about Cold War politics. The situations created by the emnity between the USSR and the USA were often absurd. Stanley Kubrick was going to make "Dr. Strangelove" a very serious drama, but someway through production he saw how ludicrous the idea really was. Politicians arguing about the fate of the world, but not actually accomplishing anything. As I've learned more about the Cold War, the movie has become more humorous. For example the phone conversation between the US president and the Soviet Premier is priceless and probably my favorite scene.

 

Edited by: JeanHagen on Dec 28, 2011 10:20 PM

[jamesjazzguitar]

Well of course Dr Strangelove is a comedy. There are so many over the top lines and insane situations that could only occur in a comedy or a very camp drama (but these are typically low production quality films).

 

What I find interesting in your reply here is your point about how an audience today would view the film verses one back in the 60s. I would of assume the opposite of what you imply; that today the movie and most of its scenes would clearly be seen as the farce it was but back in the 60s when there was a real fear of being nuked, some of the farce might be lost on the audience.

 

Either way one of the greatest black comedies.

 

 

[megawolf]

there will be no fighting in the War Room

[mrroberts]

Today we can look at this film and focus on the "comedy" aspects. I wasn't old enough to see the movie and really understand it until the mid 70's. So it was "scary" (the Cold War was still very real in the mid 70's) but it satirized the authority figures so well it was also funny to me. I am not sure the film seemed very funny to most people when it first came out, but apparently it was still popular. Any "old timers" out there who saw this when it was originally done and can comment on their first impressions?

[megawolf]

I just can't recall...my father flew B-52s and we lived on a SAC base when this movie and Fail Safe came out. SAC was so upset with either Dr. Strangelove or Fail Safe that the Air Force would not show it at the base theater, but I believe it was Fail Safe that was expelled. However, all SAC people liked A Gathering of Eagles...