/ Film Class #9 / Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb / Stanley Kubrick

With Stanley Kubrick's seventh film, everything could turn out differently. The director himself acknowledged that he had been particularly interested in nuclear weapons in the 1950s and had read about eighty books and contacted several experts dealing with this issue.

So he found the novel Red Alert (1958) by Peter George and redeemed the screening rights so that he would soon start working on the script with the author. It was a story about a mad general who had decided to throw a bomb on the Soviet Union, and in the film it was supposed to be told from the perspective of extraterrestrial civilization that testifies to Earth's failure. 

The effort to capture the work of "serious" topics was hampered by numerous situations. Kubrick was not sure if he wanted  the "serious" story, so it seemed that the satirical and humorous approach would be better suited to the subject, and at the same time would create a film that had a new angle in approach from the former canon of the Cold War theme. 

Project was taken over by Columbia Pictures, and the new distributor, following the success of Lolita, required Peter Sellers to play. Peter George has been implicated in the lawsuit because he had filed a lawsuit against two authors for plagiarizing his text. The second novel was also in the process of pre-production and was a competition for Kubrick's project. The director has ultimately decided to bring the screenwriter and writer Terry Southern to work in comic and satirical dress. (1)

The story of the movie begins in medias res:
General Jack D. Ripper, commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, has gone crazy. This would not be that big a deal, but Burpelson Air Force Base is home to the Strategic Air Command’s 843rd Bomber Wing. Those bombers are B-52s fitted with nuclear warheads. And thanks to the fact that no one in the military seem to notice the increasingly paranoid behavior of General Ripper, those bombers are currently on their way to their targets deep inside the Soviet Union under impression that all-out nuclear war is imminent. (2)



Kubrick opens the film with a long-lasting aerial shot blended with the airborne B-52 flight recordings that will stretch throughout the film. Keeping in mind the fact that the film was filmed in '63  we can state that the flight crew looks really impressive. Today, with all the possible technology and finances, they do not look obsolete or outdated, which is, with regard to the time lag of about 40-50 years, really surprising, worthy of attention and admiration.
The War Room, one of the most memorable of movie interiors, was created by Ken Adam out of a circular desk, a ring of lights, some back-projected maps, and darkness.

General Jack D. Ripper played by Sterling Hayden has become convinced that the commies are poisoning "the purity and essence of our natural fluids" by adding fluoride to the water supply.
The only man standing between Ripper and nuclear holocaust is Group Captain Mandrake played by Peter Sellers, who listens with disbelief to Rippers' ravings. Sellers is playing three roles in the film :
the mentioned above Captain Mandrake, then petrified President Muffley, who is summoning his advisers in the War Room after bombs are fired and Ripper cannot be reached, and sinister  Dr. Strangelove, strategist with an evil german accent.

The historical context is important because the individual characters are modeled on real people involved in the American war against communism. For example, President Merkin Muffley was based on Aldai Stevenson's model: diplomat and politician who twice failed to run for the presidency and who expressed a moderate attitude towards the Soviet Union. General Buck Turgidson is based on a military figure, Curtis LeMay, a loud  proponent of nuclear weapons. General Jack D. Ripper was based on LeMay, and businessman and political activist Robert Welch, known for political conservatism and sponsoring anti-communist activities. Dr. Strangelove, who appears only in the last third of the film, is based on scientist Edward Teller (he worked on an atomic bomb project and was an anticommunist), rocket scientist Werner von Braun, nuclear strategist Herman Kuhn and politician Henry Kissinger. So we can conclude that Kubrick's humorous film directly responds to the contemporary political and social context and ridiculates some of the typical American cultural and foreign-political postulates that are still perceptible today in the political life of that country. (1)





We also have names and surnames that are interspersed with sexual advocacy. President Merking Muffley carries name and surname referring to female genitals, suggesting he is a wuss. Lionel Mandrake has the surname of herbs mandrakes, which was often associated with good things in myths. Buck Turgidson is especially interesting: in his slogan his name refers to a fertile, powerful man, his last name contains a root meaning "overturned", which suggests excited, erectile. Later he is a nontestosterone figure in action: he is initially introduced with a lover who uses ballistic terminology in the game of seduction. Later promises her marriage, but does not accept Strangelove's plan for polygamy in the name of preserving the human species. Through these people, Kubrick directly connects sex and war. The generals' name Ripper refers to the serial killer of Jack The Ripper and that is another important figure that links sex with aggression. He is a proponent of the use of nuclear weapons and suffers from paranoid disturbances. He made up the Communist conspiracy, which he mentions Mandrake, whose purpose is to deprive the Americans of vital body fluids through the fluoridation of drinking water, thereby weakening their physical and reproductive potential. Because of the fear of communism, he no longer practices sexual intercourse, he always smokes a fumbling cigar, and has come to enlightenment just during sexual intercourse.
Other comic names include Major T. J. "King" Kong, Prime Minister Kissoff, Ambassador De Sadesky. (1)

TRIVIA:
On Nov. 22, 1963, Stanley Kubrick was supposed to present his new film, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, to the press. Shortly before the screening, word arrived that President Kennedy had been assassinated that day. The screening was canceled and, because the film treats a U.S. President character with less than the utmost respect, changes were made before the film’s release. The character of Major Kong had a line describing how “a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas”—but because the President had been killed in Dallas, the line was changed to “in Vegas.” A pie-throwing sequence that Kubrick found too silly was also cut; it would have included the line “our beloved President has been struck down in his prime.” The film’s planned London premiere, scheduled for Dec. 12 that year, was also cancelled. Dr. Strangelove eventually opened in the U.S. on Jan. 29, 1964. (3)



MORE:
Inside: Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (2000), a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of one of the classics of modern cinema. Including interviews with many members of the cast and crew of this story about the scramble by the heads of state to head off a rogue general’s attempt to launch a nuclear war, this film gives fans a wealth of new information on the work and effort that went into bringing the film to fruition.

Featurette about the life and career of British comedian actor Peter Sellers (1925-1980).

Material used in article:
(1) Dejan Duric, "Dr. Strangelove ili: Kako sam naučio ne brinuti i zavolio bombu" , GKR Beta magazin, 25 listopad 2016
(2) Timothy Sexton, Grade Saver
(3) Art Imitates Life: 10 Movies Altered Due to Real-Life Events