Not only is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb one of the greatest comedies of all time (also a thoughtful social commentary), it has the best movie trailer ever.
For those of you who don’t follow Stanley Kubrick’s (the director of Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining) work closely, Dr. Strangelove was the film that saw Kubrick really move into a different stratosphere as a filmmaker. While his previous film Lolita was edgy (especially for the time), Dr. Strangelove showed that Kubrick was capable of mastering any genre including comedy.
Many have copied the style of this trailer to varying degrees of success but nothing touches the original. Here it is in HD:
Admittedly, this trailer is even funnier if you’ve seen the movie. It does a great job of illustrating the absurdity of the film but the true brilliance in this trailer is that it also reflects the theme of the film (the absurdity of man being able to accidentally destroy all life on Earth through nuclear war). The comedy works on multiple levels and as is the case with the great comedies, it’s based on truth.
This was before the days of digital editing (1964). Think of how difficult it would have been to cut this trailer. All of the quick cuts, inline text cards, and sound cues had to be just right. Kubrick, being a perfectionist, undoubtedly spent endless of amounts of time getting things to line up exactly. There’s true craftsmanship on display here.
If you’ve not seen Dr. Strangelove in a while (or ever), it’s a must watch. The comedy holds up rather well even today. It’s worth it just to see Peter Sellers at a career high. I leave you with a picture of Dr. Strangelove that says it all.
Dr. Strangelove himself (Peter Sellers)