Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove: Raising Questions that No American Film Dared Raise Before

Dr. Strangelove can be justified as a milestone in cinema primarily as a result of its place in bridging the ideological tapestry of Cold War politics and Hollywood. Before Dr. Strangelove, Hollywood had never dared raise many of the disturbing questions about the impact of nuclear capability in such a serious way. The only movies that had commented on the dark underside of American nuclear superiority had been the B-grade atomic monster movies of the 1950s, and none of them dared confront the issues in such a politically aware manner as Dr. Strangelove. The secret to the ability of Dr. Strangelove to directly confront many of the most dangerously held beliefs of its American audiences is not only that it does so in comic manner, but that the form of comedy is muted. In fact, future generations could well be forgiven for reading the film as a straight drama.

Every scene in Dr. Strangelove is filmed and edited and acted with the utmost seriousness. Despite being one of the funniest movies ever made, actors are not allowed to give in to the temptation either foreshadow the joke or even deliver a "punch line." Despite the fact that the eminently talented physical comedian Peter Sellers stars in three different roles, he is never allowed to mug for the camera. In other words, Dr. Strangelove is a comedy, but it is a comedy based on dramatic irony. One need only watch the far more earnest film that broaches almost exactly the same plot, Fail-Safe, to see how important this approach has been to making Dr. Strangelove a classic, while relegating the dramatic interpretation to merely being a great, but little-known movie.