Cult Classic Corner: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

By Nate Storey

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring:
Peter Sellers…Group Captain Lionel Mandrake/President Merkin Muffley/Dr. Strangelove
George C. Scott…Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson
MPAA Rating: PG
Runtime: 96 minutes

Synopsis: U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely mad and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R, suspecting 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 Machine” which will destroy all life on Earth.

Why it’s Great: This is one of the most hilarious satires in recent times, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick (of “2001”, “Clockwork Orange”, “The Shining”, and “Full Metal Jacket” directorial fame), and starring Peter Sellers in not one, not two, but three roles. Playing a British officer (Mandrake), the US president (Muffley), and the titular German scientist, Dr. Strangelove; Sellers is completely unrecognizable in each role. The movie satirizes everything Cold War-related, from the obsession with secrecy to the machismo attitude regarding nuclear weapons. Another great part about the movie is the names. “Col. Bat Guano,” “Maj. T.J. ‘King’ Kong,” “Burpelson Air Force Base,” “Soviet Premiere Dimitri Kissoff,” and the list goes on.

Best Scene: Where to start? The beginning is a great scene, and so is the one after that and after that and the one after that. Really, every scene is brilliant, beginning to end. There is at least one laugh out loud line in every scene. It is clever, brilliantly acted (with George Scott’s favorite role of his) and is a classic all around. The best scene, I suppose, if I really had to settle on just one, is the finale, with Dr. Strangelove’s actual appearance. Sellers was so funny in the role that the actors standing behind him throughout the scene had to be cut out b/c they were laughing so hard during filming.

Trivia: Stanley Kubrick intended the film to end with a pie fight between the Russians and the Americans in the War Room, but he decided not to use it because he considered it too farcical compared with the satirical nature of the rest of the film and that at one point, President Muffley took a pie in the face and fell down, prompting Gen. Turgidson to cry, “Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has just been struck down in his prime!” (This would have preemptively echoed John F. Kennedy’s assassination).

Gen. Ripper’s belief that putting fluoride in water was a Communist plot to poison Americans is not made up; it was a conspiracy theory believed in by many in right-wing political circles in the US all through the 1950s and 1960s

Great Quotes:
President Merkin Muffley: Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.

General “Buck” Turgidson: Sir, you can’t let him [the Russian ambassador] in here. He’ll see everything. He’ll see the big board!

General “Buck” Turgidson: Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!

President Merkin Muffley: You mean people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?
Dr. Strangelove: It would not be difficult, Mein Fuhrer. Nuclear reactors could… I’m sorry, Mr. President… nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely.