digamma.net - notes

Bosley Crowther, the New York Times, 1964:

But when virtually everybody turns up stupid or insane—or, what is worse, psychopathic—I want to know what this picture proves. The President, played by Peter Sellers with a shiny bald head, is a dolt, whining and unavailing with the nation in a life-or-death spot. But worse yet, his technical expert, Dr. Strangelove, whom Mr. Sellers also plays, is a devious and noxious ex-German whose mechanical arm insists on making the Nazi salute…..

The ultimate touch of ghoulish humor is when we see the bomb actually going off, dropped on some point in Russia, and a jazzy sound track comes in with a cheerful melodic rendition of “We’ll Meet Again Some Sunny Day.” Somehow, to me, it isn’t funny. It is malefic and sick.

Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times, 2004:

If I were asked to extract a political position from the movie, I’d be baffled. It is neither for nor against the war on terrorism, just dedicated to ridiculing those who wage it and those who oppose it. The White House gets a free pass, since the movie seems to think Team America makes its own policies without political direction.

I wasn’t offended by the movie’s content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides – indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they’re wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn’t matter.

I haven’t seen Team America, but I’m a huge South Park fan, so I expect to like it. Ebert is one of my favorites, but the similarity between his review and Crowther’s struck me immediately. Forty years from now, I wonder if we’ll look back and snicker at the film critics who stumbled over it.