Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb(We'll go with Dr. Strangelove for short.) There is a quote about war by Georges Clemenceau that gets twisted to serve political ends midway through Dr. Strangelove: "War is too important to be left to the generals"; the message gets worked to indicate that war is too important to be left to the politicians by a general gone mad. But in light of the ending to Dr. Strangelove--a final one, indeed--perhaps neither party should be involved. If they can't play nice with their toys, they shouldn't play with them at all.
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Dr. Strangelove is arguably the perfect black comedy, twisted and insane, but populated with characters thoroughly convinced of the ultimate threat looming before them--and yet unable to grasp the absurdity of it all. In Dr. Strangelove, we have the best farce of nuclear war and not only the inevitable futility of such a venture, but a hilarious indictment of politics and the fools we elect. One of the key elements about Dr. Strangelove that makes it so sharp is that all of the characters act as though they are going through the motions of an actual nuclear threat. However, so many aspects are so ridiculous, that as an audience we are stuck laughing at it all. Characters with serious business have comical names with sexual overtones that are garishly suited to their own "preversions" (read: perversions) about the associations between sex and violence. George C. Scott (as General Buck Turgidson) delivers one of the most animated performances of his career with his ultra-national jingoism that resembles a high school football coach after a few too many cups of coffee. Compare this to President Merkin Muffley (the amazing Peter Sellers in one of three roles in this film), who seems passive and impotent in light of the impending armageddon, the ill-equipped dove among hawks. And further contrast this with scenes where Sellers as the somewhat effete Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (derived from mandragora, a plant with supposed amorous properties) is trapped with General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) in his office, fighting off gunfire by other American troops trying to take the base. Jack busts out a machine gun rather matter of fact from his golf bag, and tries to thread the belt of bullets. Jack orders Mandrake to "come and feed me this belt, boy," and...well...you get the idea. This great site gag also illustrates that for men like Ripper and Turgidson, war is a game and they treat it as such. For a movie about global thermonuclear war, Dr. Strangelove is ultimately a movie about peace and the absurdity of war. Stanley Kubrick's film does a lot to set the bar for satire--political or otherwise--for many clever filmmakers to come, evidencing that the best way to criticize a government/war/policy is to make it appear so ridiculous that the audience can't take it seriously, which has been the basis for political comedy since bards and artists drew caricatures of kings. So when the 843rd Bomb Wing is the catalyst for initiating a nuclear confrontation with the U.S.S.R., and they claim that "peace is their profession", it doesn't bode well for their professional prowess.
The great opening title sequence of Dr. Strangelove--set to "Try A Little Tenderness", and with revolutionary titles by Pablo Ferro--is the perfect prelude to the film to follow. It is an awkward depiction of a mid-air refueling of a nuclear bomber, which carries a subconscious sexual allusion, forcing the audience to ask itself, "is it funny?" Kubrick is attributed with saying this about comedy: A man who wears a silly hat and knows it is silly is not as funny as a man who wears a silly hat and takes it very seriously. That's the tone of Dr. Strangelove. Legend holds that among some of the subtle ways Kubrick achieved this mood with his cast include that the circular table in the "war room" of the Pentagon is covered by green felt, not unlike a poker table. Dr. Strangelove opens with a disclaimer: that the forces in power assert that such an eventuality depicted in the film could never happen, and that all safeguards have been taken to prevent its inception. This kind of message only seems to add to the comedy, as this premise is understood from the start of the film, regardless, and the plot of Dr. Strangelove proves it to be patently false, and quite plausible in the hands of incompetent administrators of "peace". Take Turgidson's defense of the program, which inevitably resulted in Ripper exploiting a loophole in "Plan R", and seizing command to initiate a nuclear strike. Turgidson's response to President Muffley's condemnation of the plan is that the program shouldn't be discounted due to one "small slip-up". Follow this with his points in favor of committing to the nuclear ambush on Russia, including an "unofficial study" taken which planned for this specific eventuality, and you can see just how absurd such a claim by Ripper mentioned previously is about leaving the fate of the many in the hands of the few, especially when the few are as crazy as bat guano. For a movie titled Dr. Strangelove, the titular character appears surprisingly little in the movie, and principally at the end, when he delivers his defense for the merits of a master race of subterranean fallout survivors, echoing the tenets of Nazi holocaust rationale and eugenics; he even "accidentally" refers to Muffley as "mein fuhrer". The idea is that Strangelove is the end result of a slippery slope, embracing war as a passion, a perverse and twisted, monstrous caricature of a scientist, and a cautionary figure reflecting our own fervor for retaliation and hawkish hysteria.
Dr. Strangelove does plenty to satirize politics and warmongering, but also does a lot to poke fun at bureaucracy and is even so forward thinking to both assess the value of computers in simplifying our military, and simultaneously subvert it by pointing out the inherent dangers in letting a computer do the thinking for us in literal world-affecting situations. General Ripper--who, if he had a son, would probably be infamous video game icon Duke Nukem--is a paranoid, conspiracy theorist Übermensch, who exploits the bureaucracy to put himself in a position where he can deliver a decisive nuclear strike against the U.S.S.R. without fear of retaliation. He's convinced that communism is a plague; while this is no surprise in a Cold War-era U.S., he comes to this conclusion because of some fantasy about fluoridation and his "precious bodily fluids"...a conclusion he came to after the "physical act of making love", and afterward, experiencing a "profound sadness and fatigue". (Thank God he interpreted those symptoms correctly.) And his madness triggers a domino effect, where the Soviets reveal (too late) that they have created a "doomsday device", which cannot be disarmed, and will destroy the world if attacked. A computer triggers the device which affects all life on earth, a Shiva comprised of memory tape banks and Cobalt Thorium G. And when the United States government finally tries to recover all the planes, their own attack on the brave bombers journeying to the Laputa base renders their equipment inoperable to receive the recall code. In short, through a perfect storm of incompetence, madness, and an inherent wanton desire for war, the governments dedicated to providing for and protecting their nations bring about the apocalypse. But as Vera Lynn sings amid the montage of nuclear mushroom clouds: we'll meet again.
Recommended for: Fans of giddy, black comedy and rich, political satire that still rings true to this day (only the names and places have been changed to protect the elected). You'll be standing erect out of your wheelchair in no time!
The great opening title sequence of Dr. Strangelove--set to "Try A Little Tenderness", and with revolutionary titles by Pablo Ferro--is the perfect prelude to the film to follow. It is an awkward depiction of a mid-air refueling of a nuclear bomber, which carries a subconscious sexual allusion, forcing the audience to ask itself, "is it funny?" Kubrick is attributed with saying this about comedy: A man who wears a silly hat and knows it is silly is not as funny as a man who wears a silly hat and takes it very seriously. That's the tone of Dr. Strangelove. Legend holds that among some of the subtle ways Kubrick achieved this mood with his cast include that the circular table in the "war room" of the Pentagon is covered by green felt, not unlike a poker table. Dr. Strangelove opens with a disclaimer: that the forces in power assert that such an eventuality depicted in the film could never happen, and that all safeguards have been taken to prevent its inception. This kind of message only seems to add to the comedy, as this premise is understood from the start of the film, regardless, and the plot of Dr. Strangelove proves it to be patently false, and quite plausible in the hands of incompetent administrators of "peace". Take Turgidson's defense of the program, which inevitably resulted in Ripper exploiting a loophole in "Plan R", and seizing command to initiate a nuclear strike. Turgidson's response to President Muffley's condemnation of the plan is that the program shouldn't be discounted due to one "small slip-up". Follow this with his points in favor of committing to the nuclear ambush on Russia, including an "unofficial study" taken which planned for this specific eventuality, and you can see just how absurd such a claim by Ripper mentioned previously is about leaving the fate of the many in the hands of the few, especially when the few are as crazy as bat guano. For a movie titled Dr. Strangelove, the titular character appears surprisingly little in the movie, and principally at the end, when he delivers his defense for the merits of a master race of subterranean fallout survivors, echoing the tenets of Nazi holocaust rationale and eugenics; he even "accidentally" refers to Muffley as "mein fuhrer". The idea is that Strangelove is the end result of a slippery slope, embracing war as a passion, a perverse and twisted, monstrous caricature of a scientist, and a cautionary figure reflecting our own fervor for retaliation and hawkish hysteria.
Dr. Strangelove does plenty to satirize politics and warmongering, but also does a lot to poke fun at bureaucracy and is even so forward thinking to both assess the value of computers in simplifying our military, and simultaneously subvert it by pointing out the inherent dangers in letting a computer do the thinking for us in literal world-affecting situations. General Ripper--who, if he had a son, would probably be infamous video game icon Duke Nukem--is a paranoid, conspiracy theorist Übermensch, who exploits the bureaucracy to put himself in a position where he can deliver a decisive nuclear strike against the U.S.S.R. without fear of retaliation. He's convinced that communism is a plague; while this is no surprise in a Cold War-era U.S., he comes to this conclusion because of some fantasy about fluoridation and his "precious bodily fluids"...a conclusion he came to after the "physical act of making love", and afterward, experiencing a "profound sadness and fatigue". (Thank God he interpreted those symptoms correctly.) And his madness triggers a domino effect, where the Soviets reveal (too late) that they have created a "doomsday device", which cannot be disarmed, and will destroy the world if attacked. A computer triggers the device which affects all life on earth, a Shiva comprised of memory tape banks and Cobalt Thorium G. And when the United States government finally tries to recover all the planes, their own attack on the brave bombers journeying to the Laputa base renders their equipment inoperable to receive the recall code. In short, through a perfect storm of incompetence, madness, and an inherent wanton desire for war, the governments dedicated to providing for and protecting their nations bring about the apocalypse. But as Vera Lynn sings amid the montage of nuclear mushroom clouds: we'll meet again.
Recommended for: Fans of giddy, black comedy and rich, political satire that still rings true to this day (only the names and places have been changed to protect the elected). You'll be standing erect out of your wheelchair in no time!