Directed by: Stanley Kubrick.
Written by: Stanley Kubrick & Terry Southern & Peter George based on the novel by George.
Starring: Peter Sellers (Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove), George C. Scott (Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson), Sterling Hayden (Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper), Keenan Wynn (Col. 'Bat' Guano), Slim Pickens (Maj. 'King' Kong), Peter Bull (Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky), James Earl Jones (Lt. Lothar Zogg), Tracy Reed (Miss Scott), Jack Creley (Mr. Staines).
Normally,
I do not like to engage in hyperbole – so when I say that I consider Dr.
Strangelove to be the greatest comedy of the sound era – and arguably the
greatest film comedy of all time, I mean that. What makes that all the more
astonishing is that it is the only overt comedy in Kubrick’s career – although
there are comedic elements to many of Kubrick’s films, notably Lolita and Eyes
Wide Shut. Dr. Strangelove is an over-the-top political satire that takes a
very real situation – and a very real fear in the world in 1964 – and turns it
into a farce. The result is hilarious, but also disturbing and somewhat
accurate. This is a movie that follows its premise right down to its inevitable
conclusion.
The
film opens with General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) ordering the squadron
of planes under his command to attack their targets inside the Soviet Union
with their nuclear payload. He wasn’t supposed to have this authority – but he
took it upon himself anyway. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) assembles
his top advisers to figure out what the hell happened, and how they can possibly
stop it. General Turgidson (George C. Scott) has a different approach – he says
that since the planes are already in the air, and since they probably won’t be
able to call them back anyway, they should just go ahead and launch a full-scale
attack. Sure, they might get their “hair mussed” a little bit, but he estimates
no more than 20 million civilian casualties – tops. Muffley doesn’t want to go
that way – and calls in the Russian ambassador to the war room (despite the
fact that doing so will allow him to see the big board), and calls the Russian
Premier on the phone. And that’s when he gets a nasty surprise – the Russians
have just finished a Doomsday machine, which cannot be stopped, and if the
planes attack, the world will be destroyed. The Nazi scientist, Dr. Strangelove
(Sellers again) is full of knowledge, but cannot control his past beliefs.
Meanwhile Ripper is being attacked by the US Army, and poor Captain Mandrake
(Sellers, for a third time), from the British Army as part of
the officer exchange program, has to deal with his insane ranting about his Precious
bodily fluids – a theory Ripper came up with as he got fatigued during the
physical act of love. The movie moves back and forth between the war room,
Rippers office, and one of the planes headed for the Soviet Union – piloted by
Major Kong (Slim Pickens, in a role that was supposed to be Sellers fourth in
the film) – who seems like an idiot – but is in fact very good at his job,
which is the worst thing he could be for the fate of the world.
Like all of Kubrick’s major films, Dr. Strangelove is based on a novel – but one that he shapes to his own purposes. Red Alert – written by Peter George (who collaborated on the screenplay) is not a comedy at all – but a rather serious novel that was taken very seriously by those in power who believed its nightmare scenario was at least somewhat plausible. When Kubrick started working on the screenplay, he believed he would be making a drama – but the further he got into it, the more he started to see the humor in the situation – and eventually along with Terry Southern, he turned it into the comedy that it became. Like all great satires, Kubrick takes a realistic premise, and stretches it to ridiculous extremes. The film came out the same year as Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe – which tells a very similar story, but with a straight face, and presents a plausible nightmare scenario Fail Safe is a fine film – Strangelove is a masterpiece – the difference being that Kubrick sees this all as ridiculous.
The
key to the movie is the performances. Kubrick lucked out when he met Peter
Sellers when working on Lolita – seeing Sellers in that movie play one
character, who took on different personas, gave him the idea that Sellers could
play different characters in the same movie. In the film, Sellers creates three
completely different characters – his Captain Mandrake is a model of British
politeness and restraint – he knows he’s dealing with a crazy American, but he
never really loses his cool. Even near the end, when the fate of the world
rests on his ability to make a phone call, and he doesn’t have the proper
change – he doesn’t really get angry. His Merkin Muffley is an ineffectual
politician – trying to please everyone, and ending up just angering everyone.
His phone conversation with the Russian Premier, where we only hear his side of
the conversation, is quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen in a
movie. And his Dr. Strangelove is a play the clichéd Nazi – much like in Lolita
when his Clare Quilty pretends to be the German shrink. Strangelove wants to be
seen as a reformed Nazi – but we cannot control himself, saying Mein Fuhrer
repeatedly, not being able to control his arm from going into a Nazi salute –
and of course his pitched plan to save humanity, which is basically a plan to
build a “Master Race”. This is the best work Sellers ever did – and one of the
greatest performances in screen history. Yet, I almost think that George C.
Scott is even better as Turgidson – a prototypical Army Hawk, who takes things
to a ridiculous extreme – whether he’s falling over himself, or yelling about
the Big Board, or fumbling with his binders – he represents the idiotic
thinking that led the world to the brink of destruction in the first place –
even at the end of the movie, he’s still arguing that they cannot allow their
to be a “Mine Shaft Gap” between them and Commies. Sterling Hayden is also
great as Ripper – unlike Scott, he mainly plays his scenes straight – and
allows the ridiculousness of what he is saying generate the comedy.
Kubrick may have never made a comedy before or after Dr. Strangelove – but that doesn’t mean the movie is not connected to his other work. Having seen the two films within a week from each other, I couldn’t help but think of Paths of Glory when watching Dr. Strangelove. Both take a jaundiced view of war, patriotism and leadership. Both paint portraits of the men who make the decisions not caring about those they are supposed to protect. Paths of Glory plays out like a tragedy – Dr. Strangelove as a farce, but they get at some of the same issues. If you want to know Kubrick’s view of war, all you have to consider is that in Dr. Strangelove the world comes to an end because an old man can no longer perform sexually like he used to. That’s the film is a microcosm.
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