(Cross-posted from Social Capitalism.)
Reading Rick Perlstein's book about the 1964 presidential campaign, Before the Storm, sent me to Netflix for a repeat viewing of Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
On the off chance that anybody who might be reading this has not seen this movie: Please drop everything and watch it. It really is that good.
Peter Sellers's triple performance is beyond praise. Same for George C. Scott. James Earl Jones appears in a minor role. Sterling Hayden is the very model of a paranoid general, which unfortunately was barely a caricature.
Like all the good Kubrick movies, repeat viewing reveals more and more detail: the KEEP OFF THE GRASS sign during the battle for Burpleson Air Force Base, for example, or the nice characterization touch of the framed flintlock collection on the wall of Gen. Ripper's office.
I tried to see how long I could keep from laughing, and pretty much lost it at "Get me Premier Kissov on the hotline!"
The DVD has a B52-load of features, and they are all worth watching, particularly the interview with Robert McNamara and the pop-up track featuring interviews with Daniel Ellsberg, Richard Clarke, and other Pentagon experts. All of them now seem impressed with the technical accuracy of the film, the soundness of its what-ifs, and how close the world really did come to nuclear war. It's bracing and unsettling viewing.
Next up was John Frankenheimer's 1963 Seven Days in May. It's no Strangelove but worth a look, especially in this day of loose right-wing talk about how great it would be to have a military coup, and after a generation of our civilian leaders hiding behind, or kotowing to, the military. (David Sirota is right to ask who's in charge here)
Rod Serling's script is talky and preachy: "Are you sufficiently up on your Bible to know who Judas was?"
The cast is great, though: Burt Lancaster's paranoid general isn't funny at all, and like all good villains has what to him seems a reasonable point of view. I can't remember if that quality of his was in the novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey III (I used to eat up D.C. thrillers before Watergate rendered them obsolete).
The White House and Pentagon sets seem to dwarf the actors, which seems a deliberate choice on the director's part. The President's occasional use of videophone with hand-held mike now seems odd and retro-futuristic.
Curious to watch both these black-and-white movies on BluRay and DVD when I first saw them on television. They look great.
Next up, I guess, should be Fail-Safe. Anybody see the remake?
P.S. I first heard Simon & Garfunkel's "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)" shortly after McNamara's death. It's a great song that needs to be covered.
Of Montreal, I believe this is your job.