Dr. Strangelove

The third film nominated for the Best Picture of 1964 would have gotten my vote, as it's one of my top ten movies of all time. Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, is a black comedy that satirizes something that people were pretty edgy about in those days: the threat of nuclear war.

Only fourteen months before its release in January, the U.S. had faced down Russian in the Cuban missile crisis. That same year, Fail Safe, a film that has roughly the same plot, played the whole thing deadly serious. But Kubrick, who I think is one of the great geniuses of film, decided to play it for laughs, and fifty years later it's still uproariously funny.

The plot centers around an Air Force general, Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) having gone mad. He thinks the fluoridation of water is a communist plot, corrupting Americans' bodily fluids, or "purity of essence." He decides to invoke Plan R, which sends a wing of B-52s to attack Russian targets.

When the Pentagon gets wind of it, President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers, in one of three roles) gathers everyone in the war room to find out how to stop it. This includes General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) and the ex-Nazi scientist of the title (also played by Sellers). Meanwhile, one plane manages to get through, piloted by Major Kong (Slim Pickens), who has no idea that it's all a mistake.

The script, which was co-written by Terry Southern, was based on a book called Red Alert, but as usual with Kubrick, the source is only a suggestion. Dr. Strangelove doesn't even appear in the book, and the movie is much more jokey. The tone of the film walks a tightrope liked Phillipe Petit, veering between the lowest, MAD Magazine style humor (the Russian premier is named "Kissoff") and a kind of Playboy Magazine smutty tone (the opening scene shows a B-52 being refueled in the most sexual of ways).

There are all sorts of great lines, the most famous of which is "You can't fight here, this is the War Room!" or Turgidson's concession that several million would die in a shooting war: "I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed!" The president's conversation with Kissoff, which is all done at one end of the phone, is very funny, as the two speak like some married couple: "Of course this a friendly call!"

Sellers also plays a third role, as a British RAF officer who realizes that Ripper is insane, and tries to get the recall code from him without getting shot. Eventually he will butt heads with a Army colonel, named "Bat Guano," who is reluctant to shoot open a Coke machine to get change for the pay phone. "You're going to have to answer to the Coca-Cola company," he tells Sellers.

Viewed from today's perspective, I'm kind of surprised that a movie satirizing the military was even made back then. I read that Columbia only agreed to finance if Sellers played four parts--he was originally supposed to play Kong, but wasn't comfortable doing the accent. Slim Pickens, who was a Western actor, played the role straight (he had no idea he was in a comedy) and the scenes in the plane are all scored to a fife-and-drum version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." When Kong realizes it's war, he puts on a cowboy hat, saying to his crew: "Well boys, this is it. Nuclear combat, toe to toe with the Ruskies." The cowboy is the image a lot of countries use for Americans, and Pickens was a brilliant choice, even if it wasn't the first.

My favorite parts of the film are those done by Scott, who plays Turgidson (another reference to sexuality) way over the top. Scott was encouraged to do so by Kubrick, only he did these scenes thinking they were rehearsal, and Kubrick filmed them without Scott's knowledge. Kubrick was right, as Scott's portrayal, like some walking erection, is comedy gold. I loved his response to a call from his mistress during the war room meeting ("I told you never to call me here!") and then, after hanging up, his guilty little boy expression.

As for the character of Strangelove, that's the one area where the film seems dated. Nazi caricatures were still in vogue, as most people remembered the war, and he was based on a number of German scientists who came to work for the U.S., such as Werner Von Braun (not Henry Kissinger, the makers insist). His shtick of not being able to control his right arm, which snaps into a salute to the Fuhrer, isn't that funny, but his description of life post-nuclear-war, with a select group of people living in mine shafts, is great, and reinforces the sexual humor of the film. For breeding purposes, women would have to outnumber men ten to one, and have to be chosen for their sexual practices, he says. Turgidson is practically drooling at this.

The ending, with Pickens riding the bomb to its target like a bucking bronco, is another iconic image from the film. The very ending, with shots of mushroom clouds set to Vera Lynn singing "We'll Meet Again," was not the original idea--that was to be a massive pie-throwing fight in the war room.

Compared to the other four films nominated that year, Dr. Strangelove was a refreshing blast of new cinema. I say that I marvel that a major studio made this film fifty years ago, hell, I would be surprised if they made it today. It's a comic masterpiece.