Inside: 'Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' (2000) (V)

Director:

David Naylor

Writer:

Lee Pfeiffer (written by)

Release Date:

5 May 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Documentary on the making of Kubrick's classic film.

Plot Keywords:

Making Of | Behind The Scenes | Nuclear War | Interview | Comedy Filmmaking

Cast

James B. Harris	...	Himself - Former Producing Partner of Stanley Kubrick
Alexander Walker	...	Himself - Film Critic
Lee Minoff	...	Himself - Executive Producer
Ken Adam	...	Himself - Production Designer
Carol Southern	...	Herself - Wife of Terry Southern
Nile Southern	...	Himself - Son of Terry Southern
James Earl Jones	...	Himself - 'Lieutenant Lothar Zogg'
Bridget Sellers	...	Herself - Wardrobe
Peter Murton	...	Himself - Art Director
Gilbert Taylor	...	Himself - Director of Photography
Dee Taylor	...	Herself - Wife of Gilbert Taylor
Ray Lovejoy	...	Himself - Assistant Editor
Joseph McGrath	...	Himself - Friend of Peter Sellers (as Joe McGrath)
Pamela Carlton	...	Herself - Continuity
Anthony Harvey	...	Himself - Editor

Also Known As:

Inside: 'Dr. Strangelove' (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

USA:46 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Trivia:

The titles for this film were designed by Pablo Ferro, who created the distinctive titles of the original Dr. Strangelove.

Movie Connections:

Features Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Really interesting documentary – plenty of nuggets

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.