Benefit
Bluelighter
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, is unquestionably one of the greatest political satires of all time. It is an absolute Kubrick classic, a black comedy satirizing Cold War era political dynamics and concerns about nuclear war; it also draws on Nazi paradigms for more fodder. The script, from the brilliant and intellectually gifted political writer Terry Southern, is clever, intelligent and has some of the funniest dialogue ever written.
The film really benefits from the superior screenplay and acting. Peter Sellers plays 3 roles: timid US President Merkin Muffley; Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a rigidly proper RAF exchange officer held captive by an insane American General; and the titular Dr. Strangelove (translated from the German Merkwürdigliebe) a German scientist and former Nazi who defected to the United States and is an expert on nuclear war. He is wheelchair bound and apparently has no control over his black-gloved hand which spontaneously jacks itself into the Nazi salute from time to time and tries to strangle him. Add to this mix George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson, a rabid and manic bombing enthusiast; Slim Pickens as Air Force Major T. J. "King" Kong, a cowboy who has the dubious distinction of riding an atomic bomb down to Earth in one of the most iconic scenes in film history; Sterling Hayden as crazed American General Jack D. Ripper, who has conspired to start a nuclear war with Russia to prevent a Communist "conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." James Earl Jones has a bit part.
You can take any one of these characters (James Earl Jones' excluded) and they are an instant classic, each one armed with an impressive arsenal of dialogue. A mere sampling follows:
President Merkin Muffley: Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.
* * *
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
* * *
Dr. Strangelove: Sir! I have a plan!
[standing up from his wheelchair]
Dr. Strangelove: Mein Führer! I can walk!
* * *
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
* * *
General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
General Jack D. Ripper: But I... I do deny them my essence.
Probably in the Top 10 films of all time, definitely in the Top 20.
The film really benefits from the superior screenplay and acting. Peter Sellers plays 3 roles: timid US President Merkin Muffley; Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a rigidly proper RAF exchange officer held captive by an insane American General; and the titular Dr. Strangelove (translated from the German Merkwürdigliebe) a German scientist and former Nazi who defected to the United States and is an expert on nuclear war. He is wheelchair bound and apparently has no control over his black-gloved hand which spontaneously jacks itself into the Nazi salute from time to time and tries to strangle him. Add to this mix George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson, a rabid and manic bombing enthusiast; Slim Pickens as Air Force Major T. J. "King" Kong, a cowboy who has the dubious distinction of riding an atomic bomb down to Earth in one of the most iconic scenes in film history; Sterling Hayden as crazed American General Jack D. Ripper, who has conspired to start a nuclear war with Russia to prevent a Communist "conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." James Earl Jones has a bit part.
You can take any one of these characters (James Earl Jones' excluded) and they are an instant classic, each one armed with an impressive arsenal of dialogue. A mere sampling follows:
President Merkin Muffley: Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.
* * *
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
* * *
Dr. Strangelove: Sir! I have a plan!
[standing up from his wheelchair]
Dr. Strangelove: Mein Führer! I can walk!
* * *
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
* * *
General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
General Jack D. Ripper: But I... I do deny them my essence.
Probably in the Top 10 films of all time, definitely in the Top 20.
