It is Dr. Strangelove Day today! Well, there is no such official designation, but IMHO, there should be one. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, released OTD on January 29, 1964, is perhaps the best political satire film of all time.
I think of it as a highly entertaining movie on a deeply serious topic, crafted with a comedic flair by one of the greatest film directors of all time, Stanley Kubrick, accompanied by brilliant writing and superb performances. Behind the humor and satire is an exposition of the MADness of the cold war, the insane rules where a general could launch a nuclear weapon without consulting the White House or Congress, the crazy CTs that drive many on the right, the military generals who simply love wars and bombs, the loyal soldiers who do not reason why, the hubris, belligerence and basic instincts of men in power and a few good men who rise above the madness.
It is one of the movies I can watch over and over again without losing my sense of awe and surprise.
I will assume that most of you know the story-line and the characters, so I will skip the introduction and simply include various clips of the film and some tidbits of interesting information abut the movie and its making.
We start with the trailer of the movie ...
… followed by the opening credits. Many people have pointed the sexual themes in the film, starting with the opening scene below. According to en.wikipedia.org/…, Stanley Kubrick received a fan letter from Legrace G. Benson of the Department of History of Art at Cornell University interpreting the film as being sexually-layered. The director wrote back to Benson and confirmed the interpretation, "Seriously, you are the first one who seems to have noticed the sexual framework from intromission (the planes going in) to the last spasm (Kong's ride down and detonation at target)”.
Perhaps, Kubrick should have used Blue Danube for the music in this scene?
Some insightful info. about the titles — “Pablo Ferro’s loose letterforms and slack compositions superimposed over aircraft footage represented a distinct departure from American title design of the time. His lettering, variously squat, long, and lean, allows the footage to peek through, unobtrusive but utterly individual. It was all done by hand, with grease pencil on glass.”
The War Room scenes belongs to George C. Scott.
It is difficult, even after seeing the movie, to imagine George C Scott so brilliantly playing the crazy comedic role of Gen. Buck Turgidson. Apparently, Kubrick tricked Scott into playing the role of Gen. Turgidson far more ridiculously than Scott was comfortable doing. Kubrick talked Scott into doing over-the-top "practice" takes, which Kubrick told Scott would never be used, as a way to warm up for the "real" takes. Kubrick used these takes in the final film, causing Scott to swear never to work with Kubrick again.
Things go crazy with the Russian ambassador -
Gen. Turgidson sure lived a colorful life -
Peter Sellers plays multiple rules including the calm and staid President Merkin Muffley. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.”
We never see the Russian President Dmitri, but he comes out looking quite dim-witted, as President Muffley doggedly tries to explain the situation to him. Can you imagine a similar conversation between the current occupant of the White House and Putin?
Sterling Hayden plays Gen. Ripper, whose insane paranoia gets the nuclear ball rolling. He tells Mandrake that he discovered the Communist plot to pollute all Americans' "precious bodily fluids" during "the physical act of love". Lots of right-wingers today probably still believe that story.
Ripper never lets go of the cigar from his mouth. "I do not avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence.”
More on flouridation while fighting army troops. FYI — the John Birch Society promoted an anti-flouridation agenda in the 60s.
Did you know?
Mandrake trying to call the President with the codes to contact the bombers, under the distrustful eye of the army Sargent. Comedic genius.
The scenes in the B-52 bomber are more sombre, more matter-of-fact, the comedy is more subtle, although it is very serious business. Did you catch James Earl Jones?
Slim Pickens playing Major T. J. "King" Kong is one of the most memorable characters. He keeps you riveted in your seat, making you want to hear every word of his drawling monologues.
His 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." Pickens was not told that the movie was a black comedy, and he was only given the script for scenes he was in, to get him to play it "straight"
No comedic lines in this scene, terrifying in its implications, yet Pickens carries the show, getting the point across subtly with his witless style and musical voice. But he does end with this amusing line — "a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff." The original shot had Dallas instead of Vegas in the dialogue, but was changed in post-production since Dallas was where Kennedy was killed.
The climax scene with the most famous image of all -
The doomsday machine, which can snuff out all life on earth should any nuclear attack strike the Soviet Union. Intended as a deterrent, except that the Soviets never informed anyone. Duh!
Dr. Strangelove doesn’t appear in the novel Red Alert by former Royal Air Force office Peter George; Kubrick and writer Terry Southern created the new character.
Apparently, the character of Dr. Strangelove was modeled after rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun, with traces of RAND Corporation military strategist Herman Kahn, Manhattan Project kingpin John von Neumann, and hydrogen bomb designer Edward Teller.
The surreal preparation for the aftermath, with Dr. Strangelove and other “leaders” planning to go underground, with a 10:1 female-to-male ratio for a breeding program to repopulate the Earth once the radiation has subsided. Basic instincts rule.
- Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
- Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious...service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
- Russian Ambassador: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
Wanna bet conservative white evangelical men drool over this scene?
The ending with nuclear explosions from the doomsday machine, accompanied by Vera Lynn's version of the popular World War II song "We'll Meet Again".
Here is a synopsis of the entire movie with some annotated explanations -
This is a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the film; the documentary was released in May 2000.
The History of the safeguarding of Nuclear Weapons
The following information has been culled from the fascinating article at www.newyorker.com/…
- With great reluctance, Eisenhower agreed to let American officers use nuclear weapons, in an emergency, if there were no time or no means to contact the President.
- Kennedy and his national-security advisers were shocked not only by the wide latitude given to American officers but also by the loose custody of the roughly 3,000 American nuclear weapons in Europe.
- The Kennedy Administration decided to put locking devices known as “permissive action links” (pals) inside NATO’s nuclear weapons. The unlocking code would be shared with NATO allies only when the White House was prepared to fight the Soviets.
- For years, the Air Force and the Navy blocked attempts to add coded switches to the weapons solely in their custody. A two-man rule was instituted to make it more difficult for someone to use a nuclear weapon without permission.
- Coded switches were finally added to the control systems of American missiles and bombers in the early 1970s. Apparently, the code necessary to launch a missile was set to be the same at every Minuteman site: 00000000.
- A decade after the release of “Strangelove,” the Soviet Union began work on the Perimeter system—a network of sensors and computers that could allow junior military officials to launch missiles without oversight from the Soviet leadership. Completed in 1985, the system was known as the Dead Hand. Once it was activated, Perimeter would order the launch of long-range missiles at the United States if it detected nuclear detonations on Soviet soil and Soviet leaders couldn’t be reached. Like the Doomsday Machine in “Strangelove,” Perimeter was kept secret from the United States; its existence was not revealed until years after the Cold War ended. Did they get the idea from the movie?
- Protocols and switches for nuclear weapons are more sophisticated today. The Air Force’s land-based Minuteman III missiles and the Navy’s submarine-based Trident II missiles now require an eight-digit code.
- With trump in the WH and no generals to restrain him, current safeguards may not be enough.
Epilogue
So, what is your opinion of this classic movie? How do you compare it with other movies in its genre? What are your memories of the film from years past? What lessons does it hold for today’s world?
Further Reading
- en.wikipedia.org/…
- 'Dr. Strangelove': THR's 1964 Review — www.hollywoodreporter.com/…
- Screen: 'Dr. Strangelove,' a Shattering Sick Joke — movies2.nytimes.com/… (NYT review in 1964)
- 17 Facts About Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb — www.mentalfloss.com/…
- Stanley Kubrick Explains Why People Don’t Understand Nuclear Threats in ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Documentary — www.indiewire.com/…
- ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Is Basically a Documentary — www.wired.com/…
- ALMOST EVERYTHING IN “DR. STRANGELOVE” WAS TRUE — www.newyorker.com/…
- New Book Presents A 'Secret History' Of Nuclear War Planning In America — www.kcur.org/…