"Tell you what you do: you just start your countdown, and old Bucky'll be back here before you can say "Blast off!"

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb   21/01/12

Director: Stanley Kubrick        Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George

1964

            I have a strained relationship with the work of Stanley Kubrick. I know that he is a technically gifted director, and that he mixes together scenes with hilarity and absurdity right next to dark and deadly serious violence. That quality is why I enjoyed his 1987 Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket, and it is why, in my head at least, I know that he was the right director to adapt Stephen King’s The Shining, which is one of my favourite books. Yet for some reason I can’t seem to get around to watching The Shining (1980) and can’t make it through more than a few minutes of A Clockwork Orange (1971) at a time. I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) after being a lifelong science-fiction fanatic and hearing nothing but good things; however I was underwhelmed by it.

            I don’t know what mental barrier is in the way when it comes to those last three films, but I was scared it would be present when I watched Dr. Strangelove (1964), a film I knew little about when I settled down for a viewing. I imagined a more serious and heavy hearted commentary on nuclear war, but what Kubrick and his colleagues did was realise how heavy a subject nuclear war already is. Nobody needs to be reminded that these are weapons which eradicate cities all at once, and that have long lasting environmental effects. I learned this week that the term MEGADEATH is actually a unit of measurement, referring to a million deaths by nuclear explosion. These are weapons so destructive that we needed a new unit of measurement to grasp the scale of human lives lost. So what did Kubrick, Southern and George do with the script? They made a farcical comedy starring Peter Sellers.

            In the wrong hands this could have been disastrous. Thankfully Terry Southern was the kind of writer that could work on films as gripping as Easy Rider (1969) and as ridiculous as Barbarella (1968) after this, and so was up to the task. And as for Peter Sellers, he needs no introduction, and in this film he was allowed to treat audiences to not one, not two, but THREE different characters in one film, all with their own wonderful moments. Also starring was George C. Scott, who had already blown me away in Patton (1970) and plays a slightly (but only slightly) less intense military commander in the cold war rather than WWII. So Kubrick got the right men for the job.

            From the start we see early examples of Kubrick’s famous inspired use of music, and this continues throughout, mainly in the form of “When Johnny Comes marching Home” building intensity and adding tension. There is a documentary style introduction to the American B52 bomber planes, apparently utilised to provide a 24/7 airborne force 2 hours from their respective targets in Russia. They each have enough nuclear bombs to level their primary target and a secondary. The crew we are introduced to features cowboy hat wearing pilot Maj. “King” Kong, and they receive the order to execute “Plan R”, meaning that a sneak attack has been perpetrated by the Communist forces and it is time for retribution.

            For a while we only know what the B52’s know, and are clueless as to the nature of the sneak attack. Even totally English, stiff-upper lipped Group Capt. Mandrake (Sellers) is in the dark, relaying the order from his superior, American Brig. Gen. Ripper. It turns out that Ripper isn’t quite himself, and gave the order without a sneak attack, leaving the President (Sellers again) and Gen. Turgidson to deal with the political situation that comes with attacking first in a cold war, as well as trying to recall the planes, and Gen. Turgidson having to use the war room phones to deal with his horny secretary.

            Every single actor with more than 2 lines in this film is brilliant. The dialogue is witty and full of opportunities for Sellers and Co. to make us laugh. Through the satire and the absurdity we realise how convoluted the political and military world is, and how it is ridiculous that millions of lives can be in jeopardy through misuse of simple legislation. The point is there to speak for itself, and the only way Kubrick highlights it is by juxtaposing it with fantastic humour. This results in a point being made while the film is still enjoyable. The film has aged well and I think deserves to be mentioned as one of Kubrick’s best works (for the fact that he could edit around actors cracking up at Peter Sellers improvisations alone). But then again I have trouble identifying what is and is not Kubrick’s best work, so watch this for yourself and see if I am wrong.