DR. STRANGELOVE
The Cold War was never so outrageous and outlandish than it was in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. A brisk runtime, brilliant performances and a sharp, satirical screenplay make Dr. Strangelove simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) is part of an officer exchange program and currently stationed at the U.S. military base Burpleson. His commanding officer, Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has ordered Mandrake to issue Wing Attack Plan R and seize all civilian radios. Unbeknownst to Mandrake, Wing Attack Plan R is an order to drop nuclear bombs over Soviet targets. Upon receiving the plans, Major Kong (Slim Pickens) is surprised and alarmed. He knows what the plan is. He also knows that he has received orders and will carry them through.
News of the order takes the Pentagon by surprise. No such orders were issued by them or by President Merkin Muffley (Sellers). Holding an emergency meeting, Muffley allows the Soviet ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (Peter Bull) entry into the War Room. This does not sit well with General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), convinced that the entire thing is a Commie plot to destabilize the U.S. and look at the War Room's "big board".
Ripper has ordered the strike because the Communists have polluted his "precious bodily fluids". Mandrake now realizes that Ripper is totally bonkers. He also realizes that, owing to excessive planning, Ripper is the only one with the correct code to cancel the planned strikes. President Muffley orders the military to retake Burpleson. He also attempts to get in touch with Soviet Premiere Dimitri Kissov, who is currently drunk.
General Ripper meets his own end. Fortunately, Mandrake has figured out the recall code. Unfortunately, Colonel "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn) is no help in helping Mandrake reach the President. Finally, all the planes are recalled, and the nuclear attack is avoided. Or so it seems. One plane, disabled and low on fuel, is still flying. That is Major Kong's plane. Will they reach their target? Will the secret doomsday device that the Soviets have created be triggered, ushering in total nuclear Armageddon? Will the mysterious German scientist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers) help his Fuhrer Muffley in surviving what now seems inevitable? Will we meet again some sunny day?
Everything about this exchange is brilliant in its banality. One can imagine people having difficulty placing a telephone call when they do not have enough cash to pay. You add the need to call the President. You throw in how this call is what could decide the fate of the world.
The blending of the bureaucratic with the urgent makes so much of Dr. Strangelove funny. Another example is when President Muffley and Premiere Kissov are attempting to locate the rouge plane. They suspect that the target is a facility near the city of Omsk. No one, however, seems to have the facility's contact information. Muffley, repeating what Kissov is telling him, says, "Just ask for Omsk Information". That alone, the idea of calling a general service for information at a critical moment, is funny. Add the element of the President being almost apologetic about things, and the moment becomes macabre humor.
Sellers continues his excellent work with President Muffley. I figure that Sellers and director Stanley Kubrick were deliberately evoking then-United Nations Ambassador and two-time Democratic Party candidate Adlai Stevenson. Sellers, speaking with a solid American accent, showed Merkin Muffley to be decent but ineffective and a bit of a bumbler. This role, intentionally or not, also bring back the idea of Stevenson as an "egghead": bald and erudite, well-meaning but clueless.
Despite being the title character, Sellers' third character of Dr. Strangelove is the smallest of his roles. Here, he has a bizarre not-quite-German accent and a high, nasal tone. However, that lends the character a more unhinged manner. We know that he once worked with the Nazis given that he accidentally refers to the President as "Mein Fuhrer" at least twice. Sellers' delivery of one line reveals Strangelove's love of death. As he discusses with Muffley the potential of living underground with a select group of people, he talks about what they would need. "Nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely. Greenhouses could maintain plant life. Animals could be bred and slaughtered," extending the last word in an almost orgasmic glee.
As Strangelove begins losing control of his body, Peter Sellers shows how his genocidal inclinations are finding a new outlet. Presumably, Strangelove participated in the Holocaust. Now, he gets a larger chance of worldwide extermination.
All three roles are so brilliantly acted by Peter Sellers. The rest of his castmates are not far behind either. Sterling Hayden is calm and certain as the mad General Jack D. Ripper. He keeps things in an even tone when speaking with crazed certainty about the dangers his "precious bodily fluids" have faced. He tells Mandrake that he discovered this "Commie plot" during, as Ripper describes it, "the physical act of love". His calm but gruff manner reveals a man totally convinced that he is right, even if he is clearly insane. The two other roles that look exaggerated are not. I would say that Slim Pickens' Major "King" Kong and George C. Scott's General Buck Turgidson are meant to be over-the-top.
Pickens makes Major Kong into a man set to fulfill his mission. His final scene of Kong riding the bomb into certain death, whopping it up like a rider at a rodeo, is simultaneously funny and frightening. Scott, I understand, was hoodwinked into making Turgidson into a clownish figure. However, I think if this is true, Scott did not "understand the assignment". Turgidson was meant to be an idiot, one more fixated on going back to his mistress than on his job. He is the embodiment of the witless bureaucrat focused on nonsensical minutia than on the big picture, even if it is on the big board. The delight that he expresses when describing "low casualties" of this impending disaster is, like much of Dr. Strangelove, chilling and amusing. Dr. Strangelove also has the good fortune of featuring James Earl Jones in his film debut as Lieutenant Zogg, one of the bomber pilots.
Director Stanley Kubrick drew excellent performances out his entire cast. His filming was also well-executed. The film breaks from a cinematic feel when the troops are attempting to retake Camp Burpleson. Here, Kubrick decided to make it look like actual war footage. It is a credit to him that this break does not affect how the film works.
Kubrick co-adapted Peter George's novel Red Alert along with George and Terry Southern. The film has a lot of wit and dark humor. One of the film's most famous lines is, "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!", a line that underscores Dr. Strangelove's sharp irony. The film's closing of the optimistic We'll Meet Again as nuclear bombs go off all over the world also underscores the black humor mixed in with the terrible tragedy of total destruction. However, Dr. Strangelove is filled with sharp wit and bitter irony. Almost all the characters' names add to the wit and sarcasm.
Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper. Major "King" Kong. Dr. Strangelove, as in a strange love of mass murder. Perhaps Colonel "Bat" Guano is a bit too much. However, it is not a major factor. It also helps that Keenan Wynn made a good impression in his brief role.
It is to the film's immense credit that Dr. Strangelove runs a shockingly short 94 minutes. One does not notice how quickly the film goes in terms of runtime. Perhaps brevity really is the soul of wit.
Dr. Strangelove is amusing and terrifying in how it makes the end of the world look almost like farce. Everything in the film works to a brilliant level. Dr. Strangelove can certainly more than walk.
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