Stanley Kubrick's dark comedy about high level military insanity and war during the "duck and cover" era is as brilliant today as it was in 1963, when George C. Scott noted in an interview, that he felt that it would be discussed far into the future.
Mr. Scott was right.
What he, nor anyone else, could have predicted however, in an age where original negatives were shipped across the pond (and then back) for printing, was that by the mid-1980s the original negative would be nowhere to be found.
There have been various rumors.
Mr. Kubrick was so upset that he ordered all extant elements shipped to his home outside London, where he meticulously re-photographed each frame from whatever was available...
with his Nikon.
Mr. Kubrick was so upset that he ordered all extant elements shipped to his home outside London, where upon examination of dupes, he found bits and pieces of his original negative cut in as replacement footage.
The truth of the situation is that Columbia's Asset Protection guru, Grover Crisp, ordered all extant elements shipped in for examination, and in an era during which 4k restoration was virtually unknown -- I'm aware of only one other which entailed a trio of color films -- culled through the elements, and moved meticulously forward with the necessary frame by frame restoration, of which we are now the Blu-ray beneficiary.
Acknowledging the fact that the OCN no longer is available, the results are as close to Mr. Kubrick's original intent as humanly and technologically possible.
Gorgeous black & white, with a clean, dirt-free, stable image, and every bit of original resolution as captured by the protection elements.
Dr. Strangelove is one of the most important and entertaining films made in our century plus of the cinema.
I've seen it in virtually every incarnation over the years, and generally (except for the very first screening) went away less than pleased. This Blu-ray has me smiling again.
Formatted in 1.66:1 aspect ratio, it gets something right that over the decades seemed to get continually overlooked. The proper framing of the B-52 Stratofortress in flight. These huge aircraft -- 8 engines, 159 feet long, 40 feet high, and with a wing span of 185 feet (many of which are still in service, and will remain in service) are magnificent in flight. For many of the shots in Strangelove, they were captured from wingtip to wingtip, but for whatever reason some of these shots seemed to have been continuously cropped in either printing or video replication.
They're back, and framed to perfection.
There is only one Dr. Strangelove, and it's a must own for anyone who even has an inkling that they love the cinema. Not to own this film can lead to the loss of one's cinephile license.
As an aside, as I noted, while the aspect ratio of Dr. Strangelove is 1.66:1, the aspect ratio of the B-52 is slightly wider, even wider than Ultra-Panavision 70, at 8.56:1
Dr. Strangelove on Blu-ray is the most perfect version of the film that one will see, and I can't not give it the unusual rating of:
Extremely Highly Recommended!
(Dr. Strangelove is encoded for regions A, B and C)
RAH
