Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
(film)
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (aka Dr. Strangelove) (1964) is a black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott. Loosely based by screenwriter Terry Southern on Peter George's Cold War thriller novel Red Alert (aka Two Hours to Doom), Dr. Strangelove satirizes the Cold War and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction.
The story concerns a mentally unstable US Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, and follows the President of the United States, his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer as they try to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse, as well as the crew of one B52 as they attempt to deliver their payload.
In 1989, the United States Library of Congress
deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation
in the National Film Registry. Additionally, it was listed as #3 on AFI's 100
Years- 100 Laughs.
Tagline : the hot-line suspense comedy
Cast
Peter Sellers - Group Captain 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. T.J. 'King' Kong
Peter Bull - Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky
James Earl Jones - Lt. Lothar Zogg
Tracy Reed - Miss Scott
Jack Creley - Mr. Staines
Frank Berry - Lt. H.R. Dietrich
Robert
O'Neil - Adm. Randolph
Glenn Beck - Lt. W.D. Kivel (as Glen Beck)
Roy Stephens - Frank
Shane Rimmer - Capt. G.A. 'Ace' Owens
Hal Galili - Burpelson AFB Defense Team member
Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is a delusional commander of a United States Air Force base who initiates a plan to attack the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons, hoping to thwart a Communist conspiracy to "sap and impurify" the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people with fluoridated water, which he believes has caused his impotence.
Ripper orders the nuclear armed B-52s of the 843rd Bomb Wing past their failsafe points – where they normally hold awaiting possible orders to proceed – and into Soviet airspace. He also tells the personnel of Burpelson Air Force Base that the US and the USSR have entered into a "shooting war." Although a nuclear attack should require Presidential authority to be initiated, Ripper uses "Plan R", an emergency war plan to enable a senior officer to launch a retaliation strike against the Soviets if the normal chain of command, including the President, has been killed during a sneak attack. Plan R was intended to discourage the Soviets from launching a decapitation strike against the President in Washington, D.C. to disrupt US command and control and stop an American nuclear counterattack.
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers), a Royal Air Force exchange officer serving as General Ripper's executive officer, realizes that there is no attack on the US when he turns on a radio and hears pop music instead of Civil Defense alerts. Mandrake attempts to recall the wing but Ripper refuses to disclose the three-letter code necessary for recalling the bombers.
In the War Room at the Pentagon, Air Force General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), briefs President Merkin Muffley (also played by Sellers). Although unaware of Ripper's actions, Turgidson tries to take advantage of the situation to convince Muffley to launch a full scale attack on the Soviets. Turgidson believes that the United States is in a superior strategic position, and a first strike against the Soviet Union would destroy 90% of their missiles before they could retaliate, resulting in a victory for the US with "acceptable" American casualties of "no more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops - depending on the breaks." He is shocked when Muffley instead admits the Soviet Ambassador to the War Room, contacts the Soviet Premier on the hotline and insists on giving the Soviets all the information necessary to shoot down the American planes before they can carry out their strikes.
The horrified Soviet Ambassador reveals that his country has constructed a doomsday device which will automatically destroy all life on Earth if a nuclear attack hits the Soviet Union. The Doomsday Device is operated by a network of computers and has been conceived as the ultimate deterrent. As a safeguard, it cannot be deactivated. Ironically, the Russians turned it on a few days before they were going to announce it publicly to the world.
The President now calls upon Dr. Strangelove, (a.k.a. Merkwürdigliebe) a former Nazi and strategy expert (Sellers in his third role). The wheelchair-bound Strangelove is a type of "mad scientist", whose eccentricities include a severe case of alien hand syndrome — his right hand, clad in an intimidating black leather glove, occasionally attempts to strangle Strangelove and shoots out the Nazi salute. Strangelove explains the principles behind the Doomsday Device, which he says is "simple to understand- credible and convincing."
US Army troops sent by the President arrive at Burpelson to arrest General Ripper, but Ripper has warned his men that the enemy might attack disguised as American soldiers, so the base's security forces open fire on them. The Army forces win the battle and gain access to the base, and Ripper commits suicide. Colonel "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn), shoots his way into Ripper's office to arrest him, and suspects that Mandrake, whose uniform he doesn't recognize, is leading a mutiny and wants to arrest him, but Mandrake convinces Guano that he has to call the President to tell him the recall code, which he has deduced from Ripper's desk blotter doodles is based on the initials for PEACE ON EARTH and PURITY OF ESSENCE).
The code is issued to the planes, and those that have not been shot down return to base – except the Soviets announce that one B-52 has not been downed as they had previously reported. Damaged by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile, the plane is now flying below the radar. Unable to receive the recall code, due to damage to the plane's radio equipment, and leaking fuel at an increased rate, the crew proceeds on its own initiative to a "target of opportunity," bypassing both the primary and secondary targets they've been assigned, where Soviet defense forces - on information from the Americans - are waiting for them.
As they start
their bomb run, the damaged B-52's doors jam, and in forcing them open, the aircraft
commander, Major "King" Kong (Slim Pickens), ends up riding a nuclear
bomb to the ground like a cowboy in the rodeo, whooping and hollering as he plummets
to the ground with the bomb between his legs like a huge phallus.
The bomb explodes, and, according to the Soviet ambassador, life on Earth's surface will be extinct in ten months due to the Doomsday Machine. Dr. Strangelove recommends to the President that a group of about 200,000 people be relocated deep in a mine shaft, where the nuclear fallout cannot reach them, so that the USA can be repopulated afterwards. Because of space limitations, Strangelove suggests a gender ratio of "ten females to each male," with the women selected for their sexual characteristics, and the men selected on the basis of their physical strength, intellectual capabilities and their importance in business and the government. General Turgidson rants that the Soviets will likely create an even better bunker than the US, and argues that America "must not allow a mine shaft gap."
In
the concluding scenes, a visibly excited Strangelove bolts out of his wheelchair
shouting 'Mein Führer, I can walk!', mere seconds before the film ends with
a barrage of nuclear explosions, accompanied by Vera Lynn's famous World War II
song 'We'll Meet Again'.
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