A Review: Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a film producer, directed, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick in 1964. This movie is a perfect satire representation of how easily the general public at the time of the 1960’s felt nuclear warfare could escalate between the US and the USSR, right down to the redundant title. The story of this film is that someone in the US Army has launched the code to drop nuclear bombs on the USSR and the ensuing drama of the next hours in the US “War Room.” The film is loosely based on Peter George's thriller novel Red Alert. Though this movie was a comedy it was coming from a place of real fear. What’s amazing about this film is that Stanley Kubrick was able to express an important and strong opinion on a very serious current affair to a massive audience and he did so with much success. Film gives society an opportunity to see and hear what other people are thinking outside of the media. It’s also very significant that this film is a comedy. Comedy has always been the best outlet for artist to make public and governmental critiques, while still being consumed on a much more mass market than something that is serious and may turn people off.
It is interesting to note that Stanley Kubrick was living in the UK when he made this film and all production took place in the United Kingdom. The film, in a sense, makes a mockery of the US military along with the USSR and Germany. The only level headed character in the whole film is Capt. Mandrake who is a British man; in fact he is the only one that makes an actual effort to save the lives of the soldiers, who are just following orders, and all the human beings living in the rest of the world. I can only imagine how much the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 14, 1962 to October 28, 1962, must have influenced this film. In Kubrick’s mind this is what he thought it would be like for President Kennedy if you condensed those undetermined thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis into a couple of hours. Even the “War Room” is how everyone believes a war room at The Pentagon looks like: huge endless ceilings, wall-sized monitors, maps with blinking lights all over them, and a massive round table filled with generals and scientists. At the push of a button the whole world could be in a nuclear holocaust, that’s how simple people thought it was and it very well could have been that simple. One man delusional over ‘fluids’ could have been the difference between me being alive or not.
The stars of this film are what really made it unforgettable. Mainly the impeccable performance by Peter Seller as: British Capt. Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and the title character Dr. Strangelove. He did such a good job differentiating between each character, unless you’ve done your research you were unlikely to see the similarities between the characters. Eddie Murphy must have been taking notes from him when he was filming for movies like, Coming to America, The Nutty Professor, and so many others where he plays multiple characters to perfection. The other actors in this film are: George C. Scott as Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson, Sterling Hayden as Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper, Keenan Wynn as Col. ‘Bat Guano, Slim Pickens as Maj. ‘King’ Kong, and Peter Bull as the Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky. Something that needs to be addressed is the hilarious irony of the characters names. Jack D. Ripper, the General who launches the nuclear codes at the beginning of the movies, is an obvious play on Jack the Ripper the infamous 1800’s serial killer who was never caught. Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson is a take on the over-masculine male like buck compared to a doe. Col. ‘Bat’ Guano translates to bat-shit implying that his is crazy, which he certainly is. Major ‘King’ Kong an overt reverence to King Kong the dumb destructive animal that wreaks havoc on innocent cities. Strangelove is perverted. De Sadesky is sadistic. And lastly Merkin Muffley, which loosely translates to ‘pussy’. One quote that Peter Seller says, as President Muffley, to the Soviet Leader over the phone is “He did a silly thing and had all his planes attack your country.” I thought that this quote was perfectly executed by Seller he brought the President down to our level and made him feel like a kid that is telling his mother he broke a vase in the living room and that he was “really really sorry.” Something else that caught my eye was at the beginning of the movie when Maj. Kong receives the call for “Plan R” he says to the man in the aircraft, “Our enemies have no regard for human life including their own!” This is exactly how any general would describe the enemy to their men, the irony of the statement is that Maj. ‘King’ Kong knows that if they have to drop the bombs no one really stands a chance of living. The scene where there is a firefight taking place in front of a sign that says, “Peace is Our Profession” is such an overt critique of all military in general. The best quote in the entire film is “Gentlemen you can’t fight in here this is the war room!” this perfectly hypocritical quote is the essence of this movie. The flawless irony Kubrick portrays in that scene alone is immaculate.
This movie touched upon many of the issues facing the world at that point including, the missile crisis, the worldwide fear of any country other than your own, sexism, and how out of touch our government seem to be. This film is a work of cinematic perfection. It accompanies many aspect of the counterculture movement, while still keeping its relevance in today’s society. This film keeps its authenticity and relevance throughout the years it is truly timeless.
