Dr. Strangelove

Arguably Kubrick's finest film, and indisputably one of the best comedies ever made, this pitch black 1964 laffer spotlights Peter Sellers in an acting tour-de-force. When a British military group captain (Sellers) fails to stop a bodily fluid obsessed American general (Sterling Hayden) from launching his own preemptive nuclear strike on Russia, it becomes the President's job (Sellers again) to convince the Russians that the top American brass have assembled in the War Room to prevent one. That is, until they're forced to entertain the mad doomsday scenarios of the infamous Dr. Strangelove. (You guessed it, Sellers.) If for some strange reason you don't already have this one in your collection (it's been released before on DVD), now's the time to strike, so to speak, for this CTS special edition includes the featurettes "The Art of Stanley Kubrick: From Short Films to Strangelove" and "Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove," along with an original split-screen interview with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott. A no-brainer purchase, and our highest recommendation. Editor's Choice. (S. C. Sickles)[DVD Review--November 16, 2004--Columbia TriStar, 2 discs, 95 min., not rated, $26.95--Making its third appearance on DVD, 1963's Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb--40th Anniversary Special Edition looks the best it ever has here, and features new DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, as well as a mix of old and new DVD extras. In addition to all of the extras listed in the above review, this new edition adds the new half-hour documentary retrospective "No Fighting in the War Room, Or: Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat" (featuring interviews with Roger Ebert--whose essay on the film is also included in an accompanying 20-page booklet--Robert McNamara, and Spike Lee), the 18-minute biographical profile featurette "Best Sellers: Peter Sellers Remembered," and a separate 25-minute interview with McNamara. Bottom line: although the last version was an Editor's Choice, this new-and-improved upgrade is well worth adding and definitely highly recommended if you have no edition of the film on DVD at all.][Blu-ray Review—July 7, 2009—Sony, 95 min., PG, $38.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1963's Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb sports a great transfer and a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Blu-ray extras include a 46-minute “making-of” documentary, the half-hour retrospective featurette “No Fighting in the War Room, Or: Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat” featuring an interview with film critic Roger Ebert, the 18-minute biographical profile “Best Sellers: Peter Sellers Remembered,” “The Art of Stanley Kubrick: From Short Films to Strangelove” featurette (13 min.), an original split-screen interview with Sellers and costar George C. Scott, a 25-minute interview with former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, a 32-page built in booklet, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a picture-in-picture pop-up trivia track. Bottom line: a Kubrick classic shines on Blu-ray.][Blu-ray/DVD Review—June 14, 2016—Criterion, 95 min., not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1964's Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb sports a fine transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 and uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray release. Extras include the 2000 documentary “Inside Dr. Strangelove” (46 min.), the behind-the-scenes segments “No Fighting in the War Room” featuring Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and journalist Bob Woodward (30 min.), “Best Sellers” on star Peter Sellers (19 min.), and “The Art of Stanley Kubrick” (14 min.); interviews with Kubrick scholars Mick Broderick (19 min.) and Rodney Hill (18 min.), archivist Richard Daniels (14 min.), cinematographer Joe Dunton and camera operator Kelvin Pike (12 min.), novelist Peter George's son David George (10 min.), and costars Sellers and George C. Scott (8 min.); excerpts from NBC's Today with Sellers and critic Gene Shalit (4 min.), and from a 1966 audio interview with director Stanley Kubrick (3 min.); and a booklet with an essay by scholar David Bromwich and a 1994 article by screenwriter Terry Southern. Bottom line: an excellent extras package for this superior edition of Kubrick's classic comedy.]