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Dr. Strangelove

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Dr. Strangelove
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
File:DrstrangeloveCover.jpg
DVD cover, based on the film poster by Tommy Ungar.
Directed byStanley Kubrick
Written byNovel:
Peter George
Screenplay:
Stanley Kubrick
Terry Southern
Peter George
Uncredited:
Peter Sellers
James B. Harris
Produced byStanley Kubrick
StarringPeter Sellers
George C. Scott
Sterling Hayden
Keenan Wynn
Slim Pickens
James Earl Jones
Tracy Reed
CinematographyGilbert Taylor
Edited byAnthony Harvey
Stanley Kubrick
(uncredited)
Music byLaurie Johnson
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
January 29, 1964
Running time
94 min.
CountryU.K. / U.S.A.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,800,000
"Strangelove" redirects here. For other uses, see Strangelove (disambiguation).

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. Based loosely upon the Cold War thriller novel Red Alert (also known as Two Hours to Doom) by Peter George, the source material was refashioned as a black comedy by screenwriter Terry Southern. Dr. Strangelove satirizes the fragile nature of the Cold War conflict and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. The film opens at the fictional Burpelson Air Force Base, where the insane General Jack D. Ripper has just ordered a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The rest of Dr. Strangelove follows the President of the United States, his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and an RAF officer as they try to recall Ripper's bombers in order to prevent a nuclear apocalypse.

In 1989 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was nominated for four academy awards and won four BAFTA's including two for best British film and best film from any source. Additionally it was listed as #26 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies" and #3 on its "100 Years, 100 Laughs." Roger Ebert has Dr. Strangelove in his list of Great Movies, saying it is "arguably the best political satire of the century."[1]

Plot

Template:Spoiler Jack D. Ripper, a delusional United States Air Force general, executes his plan to strike the Soviet Union with a nuclear knockout blow to thwart a Communist conspiracy which threatens to "sap and impurify" the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people with fluoridated water. Exceeding his authority, Ripper convinces everyone at Burpelson Air Force Base that the United States is in a "shooting war" with the Soviet Union, and orders the 843rd Bomb Wing (which is then airborne in a training exercise called "Operation Dropkick") past its fail-safe points and into Russia. An RAF officer Mandrake suspects that all is not as it seems, when he turns on an unconfiscated radio and hears pop music when there should be Civil Defense alerts. (Later in Ripper's office, the radio is turned on again, this time to a jazz rendition of "Greensleeves".)

File:Warroom.jpg
The iconic Pentagon War Room set
File:Strangelove123.jpg
Dr. Strangelove delivering his "deterrence" oration
File:Slim-pickens riding-the-bomb.jpg
Major Kong, the captain of the "Leper Colony," riding the bomb to nuclear oblivion

Ripper: Mandrake, I suppose it never occurred to you that while we're chatting here so enjoyably, a decision is being made by the President and the Joint Chiefs in the war room at the Pentagon. And when they realize there is no possibility of recalling the wing, there will be only one course of action open: total commitment... Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?

Mandrake: No. I don't think I do sir, no.

Ripper: He said war was too important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

General Ripper is unaware that the Soviets have constructed a doomsday device (always referred to as a "doomsday machine" in the movie) which, on automatically detecting any nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, destroys all life on Earth via massive nuclear fallout. The president asks nuclear war expert and German expatriate Dr. Strangelove to discuss the possibility of the doomsday machine. Strangelove himself is a type of "mad scientist", whose eccentricities include a severe case of alien hand syndrome—his right hand, clad in an intimidating black leather glove, alternates between attempting to strangle Strangelove and shooting out in a Nazi salute. Strangelove explains to staff assembled in the American war room how the device is a natural extension to the Cold War stratagem of mutually assured destruction as a deterrent to an actual nuclear exchange. Moreover, the machine cannot be turned off as this would mitigate its value as a deterrent.

As a result, the Federal government of the United States cooperates with the Soviets in shooting the American planes down until they can be recalled. As American troops attack Ripper's base, Ripper commits suicide. The clueless commander of the unit attacking the base, Colonel "Bat" Guano believes that British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, an officer participating in an "exchange program" with the USAF, is leading a mutiny of "deviated preverts" (sic) against General Ripper. He fails to recognise the RAF uniform as that of an allied nation, but ultimately relents and helps Mandrake to call the President to tell him the recall code, which he has deduced from Ripper's doodles. Mandrake is forced to use a telephone booth to inform the President. Not having enough change, he tells Guano to shoot the coinbox on a vending machine, which Guano, still suspicious of Mandrake, does reluctantly.

Unfortunately, one B-52 ("The Leper Colony") was damaged, but not destroyed, by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile. The missile hit triggers the self-destruct system of the airplane's radio (presumably designed to prevent the CRM114 code machine from being reverse-engineered should it be captured), and with no radio the aircraft cannot be recalled; and with a fuel leak, it also cannot reach its intended target, the Laputa Missile Complex, where the remaining Soviet defenses have been concentrated. So the plane continues its mission, evading the combined efforts of both the US and the USSR to stop it, to drop its nuclear payload on an unexpected target (now selecting the Kodlosk ICBM complex, not the plane's secondary target but still within its range), which will in turn set off the doomsday machine. The bay doors jam closed, and in trying to open them, the pilot of the B-52, Major "King" Kong (in one of Hollywood's most memorable film moments) inadvertently ends up riding one of the bombs down to global destruction — with Kong cheering all the way. Kong straddles the bomb, gripping it with one hand and waving his cowboy hat in the air with his other in an homage to rodeo bullriding technique, whooping and hollering as he plummets to his thermonuclear doom.

The doomsday device is apparently activated. According to the Soviet ambassador, life on Earth's surface will be extinct in ten months; Dr. Strangelove recommends to the President that a group of about 100,000 humans be relocated deep in a mine shaft, where the nuclear fallout cannot reach, so the Earth can be repopulated. Because of obvious limits to space in the mines, Strangelove suggests a gender ratio of "ten females to each male." The chosen women would be selected based on their youth and beauty (to ensure the males would want to impregnate them), while the chosen males would be selected based on their intellectual and physical strength. The Soviet ambassador states at that point, "I must confess, that is an astonishingly good idea you've got there..." Turgidson, however rants that the Soviets will likely create an even better bunker than the West, likely with nuclear weapons stores inside, and cautions the President that America "cannot allow a mine shaft gap" (spoofing the missile gap fears) and begins planning a war for when they emerge in a hundred years. During this rant, the Soviet ambassador retreats into the shadows and takes pictures of the war room display screens. In the concluding scenes, a visibly excited Strangelove bolts out of his wheelchair shouting "Mein Führer, I can walk!", mere seconds before the film ends with a barrage of nuclear explosions, accompanied by the sound of Vera Lynn singing the famous World War II song "We'll Meet Again". Template:Endspoiler

Production

Alternative ending

Template:Spoiler The planned original ending to the film was a chaotic pie-fight scene with the Soviet ambassador in the war room; this sequence was supposed to be in color. It was cut from the final print because Kubrick thought that it did not make sense to go from a pie fight to nuclear holocaust[2]. Template:Endspoiler

The custard pie fight has become one of the most famous "deleted" scenes in the history of movies; it was not included in the laserdisc and DVD releases, and the only known public showing of it was in the 1999 screening at the National Film Theatre in London following Kubrick's death.[citation needed]

Cast and crew

Dr. Strangelove stars British actor/comedian Peter Sellers, who improvised much of his dialogue during filming. Sellers plays three roles:

  • Group Captain Lionel Mandrake — a sane, well-meaning, "by-the-book" British exchange officer with an upper-class English accent. It is said that Sellers' experience mimicking his uptight superiors as an RAF airman during World War II aided him in creating this character. Mandrake's appearance and manner are reminiscent of actor Terry-Thomas.
  • President Merkin Muffley — the Adlai Stevenson-esque American Commander in Chief — a decent character understandably flustered somewhat by the situation. The President's first and last name each crudely imply that he is a pussy by nature ("merkin" and "muff" both refer to female pubic hair). This fundamental quality becomes evident during the famous Hot Line scene with Soviet Premier Dmitri Kisof. For the role, Sellers flattened his natural English accent to sound like an American Midwesterner (another reference to Stevenson, who was from Illinois). In early takes Sellers faked cold symptoms to amplify the character's apparent impotence, although this was ultimately deemed inappropriate by Kubrick (the film crew burst out laughing every time Sellers spoke, ruining take after take) and in the takes used in the film he played the President straight.
  • Dr. Strangelove — the sinister German title-character — an amalgamation of RAND Corporation strategist Herman Kahn, Nazi SS officer-turned-NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, and "father of the hydrogen bomb" Edward Teller. Dr. Strangelove serves as President Muffley's scientific advisor in the War Room, presumably making use of prior expertise as a Nazi physicist: upon becoming an American citizen, he translated his German surname "Merkwürdigliebe" to the English equivalent. Twice in the film, he accidentally addresses the President as "Mein Führer." Sellers' accent is reportedly based on that of Weegee (pseudonym of Austrian-American photographer Arthur Fellig), who was hired by Kubrick as a special effects consultant. Throughout the film, the speeches made by the character of Dr. Strangelove are interrupted by his erratic fits of alien hand syndrome (which is now also known as "Dr. Strangelove syndrome"). At one point, Strangelove's hand reaches out in an attempt to strangle his neck; at another it thrusts itself out in a Nazi salute; at still another, it forcefully attempts to masturbate (not shown, but strongly implied). Strangelove's menacing black glove was actually Kubrick's; Sellers saw Kubrick using it to handle the hot lights on the set one day and thought it would be a good addition to his costume.

At the start of Dr. Strangelove 's production, Sellers was set to play a fourth role; that of Air Force Major T. J. "King" Kong, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber captain. However, Sellers fractured his leg while filming the bomb-straddling sequence (he fell off the bomb), and could not play the role because technical constraints would have confined him to cramped space of the cockpit set. It has been suggested that Sellers, who was concerned about correctly reproducing the Texan accent required, contrived the injury—or at least exaggerated it.

Slim Pickens, an established character actor and veteran of many Western films, was quickly tapped to replace Sellers as Major Kong. It is no coincidence that his performance turned out so authentic; fellow actor James Earl Jones recalls, "He was Major Kong on and off the set—he didn't change a thing—his temperament, his language, his behavior." According to some sources, the British film crew thought he was a method actor, and his mannerisms were his way of "finding" his performance for the character, unaware that that was the way he really behaved.

Kubrick biographer John Baxter further explains in the documentary Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove:

"As it turns out, Slim Pickens had never left the United States. He had to hurry and get his first passport. He arrived on the set, and somebody said, "Gosh, he's arrived in costume!," not realizing that that's how he always dressed… With the cowboy hat and the fringed jacket and the cowboy boots—and that he wasn't putting on the character—that's the way he talked."

Pickens, who previously only played minor supporting and character roles, stated that his appearance as Maj. Kong greatly improved his career. He would later comment, "After Dr. Strangelove the roles, the dressing rooms and the checks all started getting bigger."

Also appearing in the film are:

The production designer was Ken Adam, and the special effects were by Wally Veevers.

The novel

Kubrik started with nothing but a vague idea to make a thriller about a nuclear accident, building on the widespread Cold War fear for survival[3]. While doing indepth research for the planned film, Kubrick gradually became aware of the subtle and unstable "Balance of Terror" existing between nuclear powers and its intrinsic paradoxical character. At Kubrick's request, Alistair Buchan (the head of the Institute for Strategic Studies), recommended the novel Red Alert (1958)[3]. The book, a serious thriller by Peter George, became the basis for the film. Following his initial intention and the tone of the book, Stanley Kubrick originally intended to film the story as a serious drama. However, as he later explained during interviews, the comedy inherent in the idea of Mutual assured destruction became apparent as he was writing the first draft of the film's script. Kubrick stated:

"My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay. I found that in trying to put meat on the bones and to imagine the scenes fully, one had to keep leaving out of it things which were either absurd or paradoxical, in order to keep it from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question."[4]

Pentagon cooperation

The Pentagon did not cooperate in the making of the film, as it had done with the 1955 film Strategic Air Command. Because the B-52 was state of the art in the 1960s, its cockpit was off limits to the film crew; the set designers reconstructed the cockpit to the best of their ability by making a comparison between the cockpit of a B-29 Superfortress and a single photograph of the cockpit of a B-52, and relating this to the geometry of the B-52's fuselage.

Fail-Safe and Seven Days in May

Red Alert author Peter George collaborated on the screenplay with Kubrick and satirist Terry Southern. Red Alert was far more solemn in tone than its film version and the character of Dr. Strangelove never even existed on its pages. The main plot and technical elements, however, were quite similar. A novelization of the actual film, rather than a re-print of the original novel, was later penned by George. George committed suicide in 1966.

During the filming of Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick learned that Fail-Safe, a film with a similar theme, was being produced. Although Fail-Safe was to be an ultra-realistic thriller, Kubrick feared that its overall plot resemblances would damage Strangelove's box office run, especially if it were to be released first. Indeed, the novel Fail-Safe (on which the film of the same name is based) is so similar to Red Alert that Peter George sued on charges of plagarism and settled out of court[4]. What worried Kubrick the most about Fail-Safe was that it boasted an acclaimed director, Sidney Lumet, and first-rate dramatic actors, Henry Fonda as the American President and Walter Matthau as the bold ex-Nazi advisor to the Pentagon, Professor Groepenschelesche. Kubrick decided that it would be in his film's best interests for a legal wrench to be thrown into the gears of the Fail-Safe production. Director Sidney Lumet recalls in the documentary, Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove:

We started casting. Fonda was already set... which of course meant a big commitment in terms of money. I was set, Walter [Bernstein, the screenwriter] was set... And suddenly, this lawsuit arrived, filed by Stanley Kubrick and Columbia Pictures.

Kubrick tried to halt production on Fail-Safe by arguing that its own 1960 source novel of the same name had been plagiarized from Peter George's Red Alert, to which Kubrick himself owned the creative rights. Also, he pointed out the unmistakable similarities in intentions between the characters Groeteschele and Strangelove. The plan ended up working exactly as Kubrick intended; Fail-Safe opened a full eight months behind Dr. Strangelove to critical acclaim, but mediocre box office results.

Also released in 1964 was Paramount Pictures' Seven Days in May (now owned by Warner Bros. Pictures). The plot involves a coup attempt by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to prevent the President of the United States from signing a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets, who, they believe, cannot be trusted.

The Kennedy assassination

A first test screening of the movie was actually scheduled for November 22, 1963, the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination. The film was just weeks from its scheduled premiere. The release was delayed until late January 1964 as it was felt that the public was in no mood for such a film any sooner.

Additionally, one line by Slim Pickens ("a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff") was dubbed to become "in Vegas". The dub is apparent if Pickens' lips are watched closely when he speaks. Also, a climactic pie-fight scene that was originally intended to appear at the end of the movie (but was cut out in editing) was scripted to include General Turgidson exclaiming, "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" after Muffley takes a pie in the face. This line, no matter how coincidental, would have hit too close to home to be used.

Trivia

  • The attack on the military airport was an 'attack' on the studio buildings in London where Kubrick made the film.
  • The nuclear explosions at the end of the film are all actual US nuclear tests. Many of them were shot at Bikini Atoll, and old warships (such as the German Prinz Eugen heavy cruiser) expended as targets are plainly visible. In others the smoke trails of rockets used to create a calibration backdrop on the sky behind the explosion can be seen.
  • In several shots of the B-52 flying over the polar ice en route to Russia, the shadow of the actual camera plane, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, is visible on the snow below. The B-52 was a model composited into the arctic footage which was sped up to create a sense of jet speed. The camera ship, a former USAAF B-17G-100-VE, serial 44-85643, registered F-BEEA, had been one of four Flying Forts purchased from salvage at Altus, Oklahoma in December 1947 by the French Institut Geographique National and converted for survey and photo-mapping duty. It was the last active B-17 of a total of fourteen once operated by the IGN, but it was destroyed in a take-off accident at RAF Binbrook in 1989 during filming of the movie Memphis Belle. Home movie footage included in Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove on the 2001 Special Edition DVD release of the film show clips of the Fortress with a cursive "Dr. Strangelove" painted over the rear entry hatch on the right side of the fuselage.
  • "Reportedly, Spike Milligan was responsible for suggesting the montage ending, while Tracy Reed, not knowing how the film would end, suggested "We'll Meet Again" for the ending song when asked what would be best.

Themes

Sexuality

The film is also uncompromisingly sexual. From the opening scene (set to an instrumental version of "Try a Little Tenderness") depicting the refueling of a B-52 jet bomber (penetration and insemination), to General Ripper's sexual frustration being at the root of the eventual apocalypse, to Strangelove's plans to build a society of "ten females to each male" in the postapocalyptic mine shafts, sexual references are readily apparent.

  • The character of Strangelove is laced with innuendo—aside from his suggestive name, he is the character responsible for creating fantasies of a polygamous postwar society—during this explanation, it is even strongly implied that his uncontrollable right hand has started to masturbate.
  • Strangelove's newfound ability to walk at the thrill of this world to come has even been seen as analogous to the male erection.
  • General Turgidson, who is initially depicted as being in an apartment preparing to have sex with his secretary, is named using the word turgid, a biological term meaning full of fluid to the point of hardness, as in an erection.
  • General Jack D. Ripper is named after Jack the Ripper, the famous serial killer who murdered prostitutes.
  • General Ripper's primary concern about Communism communicated to Mandrake is the plot of fluoridating water affecting "our precious bodily fluids" which he "first became aware of...during the physical act of love" when he experienced extreme fatigue caused by his "loss of essence". He continues to explain that women "seek the life essence" and then states, "I do not avoid women...but I do deny them my essence".
  • Group Captain Lionel Mandrake's last name refers to the Mandrake plant which has mythical fertility properties.
  • During the "survival kit contents check", Kong confirms that its contents include "one issue of prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pairs of nylon stockings" invoking his comment, "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with that stuff." Even to the end of the Cold War, actual USAF aircrew survival kits, even the most minimal kits, included a condom (although labeled as a "water bag").
  • The Soviet Ambassador Alexei de Sadesky is named for the Marquis de Sade. The Soviet premier is Dimitri Kissoff.
  • President Merkin Muffley's name is formed by Merkin (referring to a female pubic wig used mainly by prostitutes in the 18th century), and "muff" (referencing to the area where the wig is applied).
  • A written statement from General Ripper, read out by Turgidson, seems to evoke the idea of both sexual lubricant and semen: "God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural... fluids."
  • When Major Kong is riding a nuclear bomb to the ground, he is straddling it, turning the bomb into a phallic symbol.

Suspenseful comedy

Although it is a comedy, Dr. Strangelove is also suspenseful and engrossing and not the least bit "madcap". Two major scenes of action are the immense War Room, dominated by the Big Board showing the location of every American bomber in the world'; and the meticulously represented B-52 interior. The remainder of the film is set in General Ripper's headquarters at Burpleson Air Force Base.

Satirizing the Cold War

Dr. Strangelove takes passing shots at numerous Cold War attitudes, but focuses its satire on the theory of mutual assured destruction (MAD), in which each side is supposed to take comfort in the fact that a nuclear war would be a cataclysmic disaster. Herman Kahn in his 1960 On Thermonuclear War used the concept of a doomsday machine in order to mock mutually assured destruction - in effect, Kahn argued, both sides already had a sort of doomsday machine. Kahn was a leading critic of American strategy during the 1950s, urged Americans to plan for a limited nuclear war, and later became one of the architects of the MAD doctrine in the 1960s. The prevailing thinking that a nuclear war was inherently unwinnable and suicidal was illogical to the physicist turned strategist. Kahn came off as cold and calculating; for instance, in his works, he estimated how many human lives the United States could lose and still rebuild economically. This attitude is reflected in Turgidson's remark to the president about the outcome of a pre-emptive nuclear war: "Now I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I am saying no more than 10 to 20 million killed. Tops!" In the War Room, Turgidson also has a binder which is labeled "World Targets in Mega-deaths". According to Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick had the round table in the War Room covered with green felt (even though the film was shot in black and white) as he wanted it to resemble a poker table, in order to emphasize that the men at the table would be gambling on the world's fate.

Satirizing Hollywood

Dr. Strangelove satirizes the conventions of Hollywood war movies, as well as the curious "red telephone" relationship between heads of state, in which a first-name intimacy competes with a culturally conditioned dislike for the other and for the entire political system which he heads.

President Muffley's famous phonecall to the Soviet Premier (improvised by Sellers):

Hello?... Uh... Hello D- uh hello Dmitri? Listen uh uh I can't hear too well. Do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little?... Oh-ho, that's much better... yeah... huh... yes... Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitri... Clear and plain and coming through fine... I'm coming through fine, too, eh?... Good, then... well, then, as you say, we're both coming through fine... Good... Well, it's good that you're fine and... and I'm fine... I agree with you, it's great to be fine... a-ha-ha-ha-ha... Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb... The Bomb, Dmitri... The hydrogen bomb!... Well now, what happened is... ahm... one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny. And, ah... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country... Ah... Well, let me finish, Dmitri... Let me finish, Dmitri... Well listen, how do you think I feel about it?... Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dmitri?... Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello?... Of course I like to speak to you!... Of course I like to say hello!... Not now, but anytime, Dmitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened... It's a friendly call. Of course it's a friendly call... Listen, if it wasn't friendly... you probably wouldn't have even got it... They will not reach their targets for at least another hour... I am... I am positive, Dmitri... Listen, I've been all over this with your ambassador. It is not a trick... Well, I'll tell you. We'd like to give your air staff a complete run-down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes... Yes! I mean i-i-i-if we're unable to recall the planes, then... I'd say that, ah... well, ah... we're just gonna have to help you destroy them, Dmitri... I know they're our boys... All right, well listen now. Who should we call?... Who should we call, Dmitri? The... wha-wha, the People... you, sorry, you faded away there... The People's Central Air Defense Headquarters... Where is that, Dmitri?... In Omsk... Right... Yes... Oh, you'll call them first, will you?... Uh-huh... Listen, do you happen to have the phone number on you, Dmitri?... Wha-ah, what? I see, just ask for Omsk information... Ah-ah-eh-uhm-hm... I'm sorry, too, Dimitri... I'm very sorry... all right, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dimitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... so we're both sorry, all right?!... All right.

Use of ex-Nazis in government

The title character, Dr. Strangelove, is a comment on the US government's use of Nazi scientists in programs such as nuclear weapons research. Dr. Strangelove, played by Peter Sellers, retains a thick German accent, and mistakenly calls the President "Mein Führer" on more than one occasion. He once refers to a study, that he commissioned, by the Bland Corporation (a parody of the Rand Corporation). His appearance echoes the villains of the Fritz Lang era in 1920s Germany whose sinister and evil characters were usually offset by some disability. Sellers improvised Dr. Strangelove's lapse into the Nazi salute, borrowing one of Kubrick's black gloves for the uncontrollable hand that makes the gesture. Sellers found the director's gloves that Kubrick perpetually wore to avoid direct contact with hot lights to be especially menacing. The thought of the new, post-war centrally controlled, underground, male-dominated society with its members specially selected from the population is evocative of Nazi visions and animates Dr. Strangelove at the end.

Fake machismo vs Geniuine heroism

We see Ripper as a he-man dedicated (if delusionally) to rooting out the communists, while Mandrake is an effete English chap who won't go about without his headgear (hat). Yet it transpires that Ripper is a coward terrified of being tortured, who shoots himself rather than face the consequences of what he has done; while Mandrake was in fact tortured by the Japanese, and yet has survived it quite reasonably and goes on to (almost) save the day.

Interpretation of the ending

Template:Spoiler This ending is grimly amusing, since it depicts the end of the entire world, but at the same time, the song heard over the montage is a war anthem of optimism and hope, creating a black irony. Even as the Cold War's ultimate doomsday scenario plays itself out, in the ultimate failure of brinksmanship and mutually assured destruction, the song suggests that the strategic suspicion and tragic paranoia thereof are inescapable. As the Russian ambassador snaps surreptitious photos of the American warroom, General Turgidson's final advice to the President assures us that missile gap thinking will remain alive and well among the survivors. Template:Endspoiler

Critical views

Dr. Strangelove was listed as #26 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #3 on its 100 Years, 100 Laughs. Sellers' line "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" made #64 on AFI's 100 Years, 100 Quotes. The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 24th greatest comedy film of all time.

Roger Ebert has Dr. Strangelove in his list of Great Movies[5], saying it is "arguably the best political satire of the century."

This film is number 53 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Awards

Academy Awards

Award Person
Nominated:
Best Actor Peter Sellers
Best Adapted Screenplay Stanley Kubrick
Peter George
Terry Southern
Best Director Stanley Kubrick
Best Picture Stanley Kubrick

BAFTAs

The film won four awards: best British art direction (B/W) (Ken Adam), best British film, best film from any source, and the UN award. It was also nominated for: best British actor (Peter Sellers), best British screenplay (Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern), and best foreign actor (Sterling Hayden).

Various

Kubrik won two awards for best director from the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists and was nominated for one by the Directors Guild of America. The film won the best written American comedy award from the Writers Guild of America and a Hugo award for best dramatic presentation.

Historical Parallels

  • The provisions of a real military protocol known as "Plan R" ('R for Romeo') allow lower-echelon commanders to authorize the use of nuclear weapons without Presidential authority during a "time of conflict." It was apparently established after a certain Senator named Buford pointed out that the nuclear deterrence plan of the United States lacked credibility, in that if only the President could authorize a nuclear strike, retaliation could be avoided if the USSR succeeded in wiping him out in a decapitation strike.
  • The right-wing John Birch Society opposed fluoridation at the time claiming it was a government-mandated and involuntary medical treatment that violated citizens' civil rights[6].
  • "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", Irish traditional anti-war song. The tune is also used for the American patriotic song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and the "The Animals Went in Two by Two". An instrumental version is used to accompany the B-52 flight, leaving an ambiguity as to which set of words is being referred to.

Trivia

  • It was typical for actual Strategic Air Command bomber crews to watch this movie while in the hardened Air Force crew facilities for nuclear alert, located a short distance from their jets fully loaded with nuclear bombs spring-loaded to respond to an Emergency War Order.
  • In the novelisation, the "mineshaft" survival technique succeeded, at least for a while, as the story is said to have been reconstructed from documents found at the bottom of deep mineshafts.
  • During the filming, Stanley Kubrick and George C. Scott had differences of opinions regarding certain scenes. However, Kubrick got Scott to conform based largely upon his ability to beat Scott at chess (which they played frequently on the set).
  • The photographic mural in General Ripper's office, presumably showing an aerial view of Burpelson AFB, is actually a view of Heathrow Airport, London.
  • The line "I can walk" given by Peter Sellers in this film is repeated by Sellers in Revenge of the Pink Panther when he has to walk on his knees in his Toulouse-Lautrec disguise.
  • The opening title sequence contains the grammatically incorrect spelling error "Base on the book Red Alert by Peter George" instead of "Based on the book Red Alert by Peter George". The error wasn't noticed until the final print had been made and was left in.
  • In one scene where the army is attempting to infiltrate Burpleson, there is a shot of men shooting it out under a billboard that reads "Peace is Our Profession!", the actual motto of the Strategic Air Command.
  • While Dr. Strangelove is answering President Merkin Muffley's question about whether the survivors of the looming nuclear holocaust will be so grief-stricken that they will, "...envy the dead, and not wanna go on living...," actor Peter Bull, portraying Amb. Alexei de Sadesky, is standing in the background, and appears to be struggling mightily to maintain his character's dour expression as Strangelove's black-gloved hand develops a will of its own.
  • Major Kong's B-52, The Leper Colony, has a designation similar to the name of a B-17 in the movie 12 O'Clock High. In that movie, "Leper Colony" is crewed by the worst airmen in the 918th Bombing group.
  • Peter Sellers struggles with his right nazi arm acting against his will were allegedly influenced by Al (David) Hedison's struggles with his right fly arm in The Fly (1958).
Main article: List of cultural references to Dr. Strangelove

Notes and References

  1. ^ Roger Ebert, "Dr. Strangelove (1964)", 11 July 1999 [1]
  2. ^ "An Interview with Stanley Kubrick (1969)", published in Joseph Gelmis, "The Film Director as Superstar", 1970, Doubleday and Company: Garden City, New York[2]
  3. ^ a b Brian Siano, "A Commentary on Dr. Strangelove", 1995 [3]
  4. ^ Macmillan International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, vol. 1, p. 126

See also

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