Details
Movie Description
DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB is Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece. Based on the novel RED ALERT by Peter George, the film is set at the height of the tensions between Russia and the United States, when all it would take to destroy the world was one push of a button. And General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is just the man to do it.
Convinced that the Russians have infiltrated America's "vital essence," the crazed Ripper gives the go code to the 843rd bomb wing to attack Russia, setting in motion a series of darkly hilarious vignettes involving gung-ho soldiers, wacky generals, spying Russians, drunken premiers, battles with soda machines, fights in the War Room, and the Russians' top-secret Doomsday Machine. Shot in black and white, the film has three main centers of action: one of the B-52 bombers, on which a group of loyal men know they are about to start World War III; Burpelson Air Force Base, where Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) is trying to convince everyone that Ripper has gone mad and the bombing must be stopped; and the War Room, where President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again) is trying to make peace with the Russians. The finale featuring Sellers as Dr. Strangelove is a comic gem. Hayden, George C. Scott, Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn, and Sellers (in three roles) are especially terrific in what may be the funniest, most poignant black comedy ever made, a vicious satire on the farcical aspects of the military and the cold war.
Synopsis
When a psychotic U.S. general launches a preemptive strike against Russia, the American president must deal with gung-ho military brass, bureaucratic bumblers, a drunken Soviet premier, and a twisted German rocket scientist. Stanley Kubrick's black-comedy masterpiece is one of the funniest, most insightful films ever made.DR. STRANGELOVE was originally going to be a thriller, but Kubrick found the many elements of the story darkly funny; he told film critic Joseph Gelmis, "It occurred to me that I was approaching the project in the wrong way. The only way to tell the story was as a black comedy or, better, a nightmare comedy, where the things you laugh at most are really the heart of the paradoxical postures that make a nuclear war possible." Thus, Kubrick hired Terry Southern, author of THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN (the film version of which starred Peter Sellers); Southern said, "[Kubrick] would talk about the mechanics of making [DR. STRANGELOVE] totally credible and convincing in terms of the fail safe aspect and then try to make that funny. And the way you make it funny, because the situation is absurd, is by dealing with it in terms of the dialogue and characters." When the film first got reviewed more credit was given to Southern than to Kubrick, who bought ad space in American papers claiming that Southern had nothing to do with the success of the film. After Southern wrote a letter to the New York Times explaining how the collaboration actually worked, the minibattle was settled.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Theatrical release: January 30, 1964.
Filmed at Shepperton Studios, England.
DR. STRANGELOVE was an original selection of the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1989.
DR. STRANGELOVE is number 3 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Funniest Movies and number 26 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.
The film begins with the following disclaimer: "It is the stated position of the U.S. Air Force that their safeguards would prevent the occurrence of such events as are depicted in this film. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the characters portrayed in this film are meant to represent any real persons living or dead."
James Earl Jones makes his feature-film debut in DR. STRANGELOVE.
The part of Major King Kong, played by Slim Pickens, was originally written for John Wayne, who turned the role down. Peter Sellers was then set to play the role, but due to an accident was unable to do so. Kubrick eventually chose Pickens because the two had worked together briefly on ONE EYED JACKS.
The ending scene was originally going to contain a pie fight, but was considered too over the top by director Stanley Kubrick.
Industry Reviews
"...A supremely scary classic....If DR. STRANGELOVE is the most warmly remembered of cold war artifacts, thank its pitch-black humor..." -- Critic's Choice
New York Times - p.C14 - Janet Maslin
"...DR. STRANGELOVE is filled with great comic performances....Arguably the best political satire of the century..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (07/16/1999)
"...The film, of course, hasn't lost a thing, starting with three exceptional performances by Peter Sellers and another by underrated Sterling Hayden..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (06/19/1992)
"...A movie that shocked the world into a new death-rattle irony..."
Entertainment Weekly - Ty Burr (01/11/2002)
"The blackest satire on the madness of war has grown more apt over time."
Rolling Stone - Peter Relic (11/11/2004)
"Kubrick's atomic-powered black comedy, scripted to perfection by Terry Southern."
Uncut - Danny Leigh (04/01/2005)
"Despite the despairing theme, it's still among the funniest films ever made -- and, in his three roles, Peter Sellers delivers several classic speeches that will live forever..."
Empire - Kim Newman (12/01/2008)
Quotations
"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 Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) to Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers)
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"--President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) to General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) and Ambassador de Sadesky (Peter Bull)
"This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that."--President Muffley "Our source was the New York Times."--Ambassador de Sadesky
"You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company."--Colonel Bat Guano (Keenan Wynn) to Mandrake
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