2014 Muriel Awards: 50th Anniversary Award for the Best Film of 1964

Once again, here's a category in which the winner was more or less a foregone conclusion. I mean, if you know anything about the Muriels, you had to see this coming. After all, when we teamed up with our Skandies pals to vote for the greatest films ever back in 2012, three of this director's films ended up in our top 20.

Still, if nothing else, this category's results really drove home what a great year 1964 was for movies. I mean, look at some of the giants we've got listed among our favorites. Talk about your Murderer's Row. And for a movie to dominate this category in spite of that... well, it's gotta be pretty darned awesome. Definitely a worthy addition to the Muriels Hall of Fame, that's for sure.

Anyway...

Third place:

A Hard Day's Night! (dir. Richard Lester) [105 points / 18 votes]

Second place:

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (dir. Jacques Demy) [148 points / 24 votes]

And the Muriel Award goes to...

Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (dir. Stanley Kubrick) [274 points / 38 votes]

"A well-worn trope that writers use for lessening the blow of horrific events is 'tragedy plus time equals comedy.' Released in the heart of the Cold War, it can be argued that Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb eliminated the time element from this equation, even though its structure mostly disguises a nightmare.

"Director Stanley Kubrick initially intended to make a thriller about the imminent threat of nuclear conflict. However, during marathon research sessions, he kept imagining chillingly humorous situations among the men who held the world’s fate in their hands.

"The comic elements of Strangelove walk a tightrope above a bottomless abyss, as reinforced by its production design and cinematography. From the expressionistic 'war room'/cathedral, to the dials and switches of a B-52 bomber, to the military base where a deranged general attempts to bypass protocol and invoke world war, the film portrays an admittedly heightened reality, but undeniably a recognizable one.

"Strangelove portrays a world where paranoia reigns, even to the point of madness. In order to explain his orchestrated enemy attack, Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) calls it a reaction to a Communist plot to poison American bodily fluids. Ripper’s only solution to overcoming pent-up fear is through war, which the film links to sexual release, symbolized by copulating planes or by Maj. 'King' Kong (Slim Pickens) delivering his phallic payload.

"Even with the ridiculous character names, Kubrick draws savage performances from Hayden, Pickens, and George C. Scott as Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson. The brilliant Peter Sellers delivers three unique caricatures, including the Nazi-inspired Dr. Strangelove, and President Merkin Muffley, whose 11th-hour phone conversation with the drunken Soviet premier remains a masterful skewering of U.S. foreign relations.

"The Cold War has ended, but the film still works, because conflict exists. Whether between nations or neighborhoods, conflict regularly threatens that which we consider dear. The lessons of Strangelove lie in recognizing how worry may actually play a part in our destruction. Upon dropping the bomb, a secret Soviet doomsday device triggers itself, and cannot be stopped. Although the leaders in the war room have devised a back-up plan to repopulate the world, the rest of us are powerless to avoid everything going to hell in a hand basket. If loving the bomb means succumbing to irrational fear, we can only hope Vera Lynn is right about some future sunny day." ~ Patrick Williamson

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