Vladimir Putin Watched ‘Dr. Strangelove’ With Oliver Stone
Image by Getty Images
By Talya Zax May 3, 2017
If you were given exclusive access to Russian president Vladimir Putin, how would you make use of that time?
Filmmaker Oliver Stone had an interesting answer to that question: Show him Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.”
Yes, really.
As The Washington Post reported, Stone, interviewing Putin for the upcoming Showtime feature “The Putin Interviews,” showed the former KGB agent Kubrick’s famous Cold War satire. Putin, apparently, had never previously seen the film.
To learn how he responded, we’ll have to wait for “The Putin Interviews” — which will air in four hour-long segments beginning June 12 — to catch scenes of the screening. (Stone previously interviewed Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, both leaders who had strained relationships with the United States. As far as we know, with them, he kept “Dr. Strangelove” in the vaults.)
And what would Kubrick think of the rendezvous? We’ll never know. But it’s a good excuse to return to “Dr. Strangelove” — if only, you know, to look for clues.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
