Dr. Strangelove documentary
June 2, 2011
There were several encounters with art in my teenage years that contributed mightily to the person I became, many of them literary: Naked Lunch, Catch 22, On the Road, Johnny Got His Gun, a steady diet of Mad magazine among them. I was not the same person after reading those texts that I was before. But there was one film that had a similar impact, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
I think I was born with a rebellious, anti-authoritarian streak and so it should be considered that I naturally sought out material that fed that tendency. It was my suspicion that the adults around me were making it up as they went along and, though they possessed power, they had no clue. Because I said so, seemed like the whole of the law.
If any single experience with art confirmed that it was watching Dr. Strangelove for the first time. The people in charge of the world were petty, delusional, drunk, stupid and out right insane. And they controlled everything!
Well, sure all that’s obvious now, but it was pretty compelling stuff to my 13 year-old self back in the 1960s.
All this is by way of introducing a five-part documentary on You Tube on the making of Dr. Strangelove, found here. If by some chance you have not seen this film, get thee to Netflix and rent it immediately! You need to see this movie. . .
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