Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Dr. Strangelove was a big landmark for Stanley Kubrick. For one, it was his last black and white movie of the generation as well as it being the only comedy that he ever remotely tried to complete.

Adapted from Peter George’s novel Red Alert, Dr. Strangelove tells the controversial story of Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a U.S. Air Force general, who has gone completely nuts about a conspiracy theory related to the communist plot of water fluoridation and has taken it upon himself to send bombers away to the U.S.S.R. to destroy all the Ruskies and defeat communism at its core.

Meanwhile, the U.S. president, Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers), meets in the war room with his top advisors to try and figure out if by this rogue act of patriotism the ‘doomsday machine’ will be triggered and a third world war will be on the country’s hands.

At the same time, you’re on board the main bomber going into Russia and you meet America’s finest—T.J. King Kong (played magnificently by Slim Pickens), who’s very serious about his mission to bring down the U.S.S.R., but after entering in the prefix code making it virtually impossible for them to be contacted by anyone except General Ripper who has the prefix code to reach them and maybe abort their mission. But does he want to? Nope.

And that—in a nutshell—is what Dr. Strangelove’s mojo is.

Originally going to be a dramatic glimpse at communism, Stanley Kubrick realized that much of what he was writing was funny so with the help of Terry Southern, who also helped with Easy Rider and Sellers’ The Magic Christian in later years, Dr. Strangelove was developed as a savvy political satire with clear potshots at the whole Red Scare and the paradoxes of war and humor. While the laughs in Dr. Strangelove are few and far between events of drama and intrigue, the movie is still pretty damn funny—but I’d consider it more of a black comedy just by its dark nature, which is needless to say far ahead of its time (as this was released in 1964).

Peter Sellers is fantastic in this movie and I stand by the fact that this was his best film. After having worked with Kubrick in the previous couple of years with Lolita, I think that Sellers understood Kubrick’s vision more than most of his other actors. In this case, Sellers plays three separate roles—Lionel Mandrake, who’s General Ripper’s first mate of sorts who tries to sweet-talk Ripper to give up the prefix code and rethink his whole paranoia. His English accent is hilarious to be exact and the result of him handling all of the information given is priceless.

Secondly, he plays the President of the United States of America, a bald man who just wants to make the right choice. He was very good in this role, but he wasn’t quite as zany as Mandrake and certainly not as zany as the title character, Dr. Strangelove, who’s in the war room at the pentagon as a smart Nazi stooge with ideas a-flowing as to how to handle the situation. He’s mysterious—not just with the mocked up hairdo or the ‘Alien Hand Syndrome’ that his character suffers from. With his clenched speaking through gritted teeth and his sparklingly gritty German accent, he makes for one great character—well performed by Peter Sellers.

None other than George C. Scott plays General Buck Turgidson—a scummy General in the war room who wants to take advantage of Jack Ripper’s execution of his plan and tries convince the president to attack Russia with more weapons as to catch them with their pants down so that they can’t retaliate and attack us back. The character is very well played by Scott as one whose agenda is clearly seen and who’s quite an oddball character amongst oddball characters.

Slim Pickens, alongside James Earl Jones’ (Darth Vader) debut performance, is very funny. In fact, all of the scenes relating to the boys onboard the aircraft are pretty funny just because of how over-the-top everything is. The song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is always played in the background with choral humming and Kubrick constantly zooms in for drama, but it’s so ‘lame’ (I use this word loosely) that it’s so well done and comedic. Either way, Slim Pickens was a serious actor playing in cowboy pictures and such and Kubrick took advantage of this by not telling Pickens that he was in a satire and the results are hilarious. His corny dialogue and terrible accent along with just how serious he’s trying to be is classic and well worth viewing.

What makes Dr. Strangelove one to see in Kubrick’s entire filmography is the fact that it’s a smart comedy, which clearly has political and social commentary. What’s so crazy about this film is how relevant it still is today and how much it has turned into a cult classic over the years. Personally, I think you should take it upon yourself to watch Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Love The Bomb because of its political intrigue, fun characters, interesting story, and overall great value.

(c) Jason Haskins, 2007

More Kubrick

Barry Lyndon (1975)
Lolita (1962)


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older