Inside: 'Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'
Inside: 'Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'
NR | 05 May 2000 (USA)
Inside: 'Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' Trailers

A documentary on the making of Stanley Kubrick's classic 1964 film.

Reviews
Woodyanders

This 46-minute retrospective documentary covers a lot of interesting and informative ground on the making of Stanley Kubrick's black comedy classic "Dr. Strangelove." Made at the height of the Cold War, "Dr. Strangelove" was originally intended to be a straight thriller until Terry Southern was brought in to make it more darkly humorous. Moreover, over 150 tradesman were involved in building the sprawling war room set, the B-52 bomber proved to be a bit too realistic and accurate for comfort, Peter Sellers did a lot of improvisation, Slim Pickens was cast at the last minute (Pickens was initially going to play Major 'King' Kong), Sterling Hayden came out of retirement to portray Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, Kubrick filed a lawsuit against the makers of "Fail Safe" in order to prevent the rival film from hurting his movie's chances at cleaning up at the box office, and the theatrical release of the picture was postponed due to JFK's assassination. In addition, there's some especially compelling stuff about the infamous crème pie fight sequence that was done in a single take and ultimately cut from the movie. Essential viewing for fans of the film.

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TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

As the title promises, this is a making of feature on Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. With a 44 and a half minute running time and 1 and a half minute of end credits(done in the same style as its subject!), this covers a lot of ground - not even shying away from a few things that paint Kubrick in a negative light, such as suing Fail Safe, on account of its similar concept, to ensure that it didn't overshadow his picture.This consists of sitdown interviews with cast and crew alike(the ones still alive - R.I.P.), behind the scenes photos and narration. It covers the entire process, including how this went from the originally intended thriller(!) to the beloved comedy it is today, Peter Sellers' multiple roles and priceless improvisation(such as the call between the US and USSR presidents - for my money, one of the funniest bits), to problems editing, the PR campaign and even the awards it has been given, both when it came out and over the decades.We'll learn how the unforgettable lines about "purity" and "essences" came about, additional details about Stanley being difficult to work with, how he handled the notoriously intimidating George C. Scott, the creation of the iconic War Room, the B-52 bomber interior being too realistic(!), Slim Pickens, how riding the bomb almost didn't happen(!), the sexual opening and, of course, the famously cut cream-pie fight climax.There is some strong language and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to fans of the movie and those who worked on it. 8/10

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MartinHafer

This is one of four documentaries included on the DVD of extras for "Dr. Strangelove". One focuses on the political context for the film, one on the films of Stanley Kubrick, one on the work of Peter Sellers and the final one (this film) a so-called 'making of' movie exploring the creation and marketing of the full-length film. Of these four films "Inside" seemed to be the best, as it was very comprehensive and couldn't have been much better."Inside: 'Dr. Stranglove'" is made up of what such films usually consist of--interviews, footage from the feature, archival interviews and still photographs. While none of this was atypical, it made the film tougher to make in that many of the principals involved in making the film were deceased--some very prematurely (Peter Sellers) and some due to old age and ill health (the director, Stanley Kubrick, Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott and others). Because of this, I really could not give the featurette a score of 10--though otherwise it was excellent and well worth watching--particularly if you adore "Dr. Strangelove"---and it's hard not to! Well worth seeing.

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bob the moo

A documentary that looks at the creation and filming of the film Dr Strangelove. This uses footage and interviews to build up the story behind the scenes – the problems, the errors, the motivation behind what they did and the areas of improvisation.This documentary has it's weaknesses but for me it did the one thing a `making of…..' film should do, and that is to surprise me with things I didn't know about the film and how it was put together. Things like the fact that Sellers improvised many of the really funny scenes, that the word Dallas was replaced in a Slim Picken's speech, a planned pie fight at the end, even how the credits were thought up. At nearly every stage of this I was captivated at how much I didn't know!The documentary only lasts 45 minutes but there's so much information that it feels longer. The two main failures of the documentary are sadly biggies! The first is that the narrator is terrible – he's just cheesy and sounds a bit wooden with a slice of fake sincerity. The second problem is that many of those telling the stories are not those directly involved. Now in many cases the producers etc are still all alive, but there's too many friends, daughters and sons who pass it all on second hand. This doesn't take away from the fact that it's a very enlightening documentary.Overall this is a really good watch. It'll make you want to watch the film again and appreciate the creative processes that went into making such a great piece of art.

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