Dr Strangelove – 1964 | 93mins | Comedy, War | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Stanley Kubrick‘s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a classic black comedy satirising the insanity of nuclear war. Based on Peter George’s novel Red Alert it was released at the height of the Cold War, brilliantly satirising how government and military incompetence could result in nuclear holocaust.

The chaos begins at Burpleson Air Force base, U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden) goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R with a pre-emptive nuclear strike. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the “precious bodily fluids” of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a “Doomsday Device” which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. President Muffley decides to shoot down all the U.S. planes before they can reach their target, but one of the planes, commandeered by Major “King” Kong (Slim Pickens) slips through and continues on its mission. Eventually the President manages to relay the recall code to the rogue U.S. bombers , but Kong’s radio equipment is damaged and he’s unable to receive the vital information. When Major Kong reaches his target he realises his missile has become jammed due to an earlier skirmish – so Kong dislodges his A-bomb manually and climbs aboard the deadly weapon and rides it to destruction like a bronco-buster. Dr. Stranglove believes that re-population of the planet is the only post-war solution – we see the mushroom cloud spout up and the sound of Vera Lynn, singing the WW2 morale-booster “We’ll Meet Again”.

Peter Sellers steals the show by displaying all his comic genius, he portrays three different characters who might avert a nuclear war: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a stereotypical English officer held prisoner by the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove. Other memorable characters include George C. Scott as gung-ho commie-hating General “Buck” Turgidson, and Slim Pickens as patriotic redneck bomber pilot Major Kong.