Reconstructing Strangelove : inside Stanley Kubrick's 'nightmare comedy' / Mick Broderick.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

With rare access to unpublished materials, this volume assesses Dr. Strangelove's narrative accuracy, consulting recently declassified Cold War nuclear-policy documents alongside interviews with Kubrick's collaborators

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece Dr. Strangelove (1964) has inspired numerous scholarly works. However, much about the film and Kubrick's intentions remained speculative until the Stanley Kubrick Archive (SKA) at the University of the Arts London opened to the public in 2007. SKA made available Kubrick's extensive files of personal papers, production notes and reports, correspondence, photographs, and more. Taking full advantage of SKA, and of archival materials elsewhere and personal interviews with key personnel, Broderick (Murdoch Univ., Australia) investigates important questions concerning the film--questions about the contributions of Kubrick's coscreenwriters Peter George and Terry Southern; the multiple sources of inspiration, both real-life and fictional, for the title character; the disputes surrounding Sidney Lumet's Fail-Safe (1964), a rival film about accidental nuclear war; the authenticity of the film's representation of military technology and protocol; and scenes cut by Kubrick from the final version. The result is an insightful, rigorously researched, and well-written history of Dr. Strangelove that should be required reading for anyone interested in the origins, production, and legacy of this remarkable film and its creator. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --James I. Deutsch, George Washington University