101 Movies or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Listen to My Wife

What are 101 movies that you think are great? Asked my beloved wife (Omnia Eteyari). I nodded; ha, and started no. 1 Dr. 'Stranglove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb', no. 2 'Cinema Paradiso', no. 3... wait wait. Said my wife. And I know in my heart that when my wife says wait, she has an idea! Mama Mia! What my darling? I responded. And she said: here's a challenge. You introduce to me and to the world (to the world!?! I swallowed) one great movie every day, 5 days a week, for 101 days. When are you going to start?... and to make a long husband-wife conversation short... I am starting first Sunday of July.

And though I have been distant from the so called "world" for a few years now, navigating through life with minimal virtual communication, I will be sharing my thoughts here and there. And as an Aspiring artist and filmmaker I will share with you 101 movies I think are great, starting with my top favorite movie from the past century and concluding with my most favorite of this century. And I will try to be as diverse as I can, works from the 20th and 21st centuries, English language and non-English language, one at a time. And because life is too short for a bad movie, #ONLYGREATCINEMA is in effect.

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1/101

Dr. Stranglove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

*SPOILER FREE

What's the price of pleasure? how far would man go to preserve their sacred natural bodily fluids? what do nuclear bombs have to do with sex? and what would you do in one hundred years living in a mineshaft with much time and little to do, where men are youth, healthy, with high sexul fertility, and every woman possesses sexul characteristics of a highly stimulating nature? Mmm.. Wait, WTF is natural bodily fluids?

In this 1964 antiwar satirical masterpiece - my favorite motion picture by my favorite filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick takes you on a journey of dark humor, fear, and maximum tension between your legs, where your heart is!

Starts with an American airforce commander ordering a bombing attack on Soviet Russia, as a response to a conspiracy theory that he came up with while going nuts in the nuts during the physical act of love. Meanwhile, Dr. Stranglove in a room ("war room") full of politicians including the U.S. president tries to stop a nuclear apocalypse from accruing OR: figure out how to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Taking you on a roller-coaster of thoughts and emotions, addressing our greatest horror as a human race, and what could potentially happen at any given moment if one of a few particular people went "a little funny in the head" with a little key in their hands and a few words they can say in a phone call. Simply because something went wrong while they were having intercourse.

As ridiculous as it sounds, Dr. Stranglove manages to cook together the two most distant components in the cinematic culinary world; nuclear war and comedy. Resulting in a meal that tastes bitter and sweet simultaneously. Laughing at fear, and giggling on the edge of your seat.

And with the legendary three performances by Peter Sellers as group capt. Lionel Mandrake, presedint Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Stranglove, and the outstanding facial expressions by George C. Scott as Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson, and of course the masterful symbolic screenplay by co. writer Stanley Kubrick, this political satire will not let go of you and your cocktail of emotions for its entire climactic 95 minutes.

Available to rent/buy at The Criterion Collection and Amazon/Prime Video

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