Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove
The second Kubrick film to make my list. This is a dark 1964 comedy that takes us to the edge of extermination. The cast includes lunatics, unhinged military types plus assorted functionaries. Peter Sellers puts in a masterly performance as three of the characters.
It is the height of the cold war with B52 bombers airborne ready to annihilate Soviet Russia. A wayward US air force general orders his planes to attack. He asserts the Russians are poisoning the body fluids of Americans.
A series of bizarre conversations between the US and Russian presidents unfold. It’s revealed the Russians have a doomsdays device ready. It will detonate nuclear devices if the Soviet Union is attacked. The Pentagon manages to call back most of the bombers, but one which gets through.
Satirising the whole concept of nuclear war or any suggestion of winning, the movie strikes at the heart of military doctrine. It also pokes fun at the masculine macho attitudes of the military. The mad Dr Strangelove, nuclear scientists and former Nazi, is a parody too close for comfort. His plan for human survival has a one man to ten women ratio living deep underground. This absurd plan is the crowning glory of insanity. Dr Strangelove lapses into a nazi salute addressing the President as ‘Mein Fuhrer’.
The film ends with nuclear bombs going off as Vera Lynn sings the World War II classic “We’ll meet again”.
It is the height of the cold war with B52 bombers airborne ready to annihilate Soviet Russia. A wayward US air force general orders his planes to attack. He asserts the Russians are poisoning the body fluids of Americans.
A series of bizarre conversations between the US and Russian presidents unfold. It’s revealed the Russians have a doomsdays device ready. It will detonate nuclear devices if the Soviet Union is attacked. The Pentagon manages to call back most of the bombers, but one which gets through.
Satirising the whole concept of nuclear war or any suggestion of winning, the movie strikes at the heart of military doctrine. It also pokes fun at the masculine macho attitudes of the military. The mad Dr Strangelove, nuclear scientists and former Nazi, is a parody too close for comfort. His plan for human survival has a one man to ten women ratio living deep underground. This absurd plan is the crowning glory of insanity. Dr Strangelove lapses into a nazi salute addressing the President as ‘Mein Fuhrer’.
The film ends with nuclear bombs going off as Vera Lynn sings the World War II classic “We’ll meet again”.