Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
I've seen this movie only once before -- on TV -- when I was young, and I thought I knew everything, so I didn't really paid much attention to it. So watching it today was really seeing the movie for the first time, all over again. This is a classic. A great film. A Stanley Kubrick film. An excellent comedy -- and commentary -- on the cold war era the movie was made in. It satirizes the fears and the absurdity of achieving peace through mutually assured destruction. For those who were not around during the cold war, and are simply unaware, this movie is the cream of your education.
In the movie, an American airbase general goes bananas, and directs his fleet of bombers to strike at their targets in the USSR. Once the order is given, there is no way to stop them -- the bombers went out of radio contact. The general wants to rid the world of the communist infestation -- their undermining and brainwashing of free countries everywhere. The general has some interesting theories of the commie invasion and the purity of bodily fluids. He is betting that the Pentagon will launch a full scale nuclear strike at the USSR -- because if they don't, USSR, which posses nuclear retaliation capabilities, will strike at the US once they've detected US bombers heading to Soviet targets. Into this situation, the president of the United States is thrust. Either go full scale with first strike, and in the process, lose about 20 million American lives -- or do the unthinkable -- call the Russians and say, "Oops!" Unfortunately, the "Oops!" is on the President -- as the Russians are in possession of a Doomsday device that will counteract by annihilating all life on the planet. (If you don't get that, don't worry -- it's part of the concept of 'mutual assured destruction' -- which itself is insane.
Peter Sellers pulls off masterful performances as a British captain on loan to the US Air Force, the President of the United States, and the former Nazi scientist, Dr. Strangelove. The other notable performances was by George C. Scott, as the sometimes raving General 'Buck' Turgidson, and Slim Pickens, as Major T.J. 'King' Kong, who gets to ride the bomb to the Ruskies. Sterling Hayden's performance as the psychotic Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper was frightening. He pulled it off so well, that one is left to wonder how far fetched the whole escapade really is.
One of the metaphors running through the movie is sex. (This is a PG movie, don't worry -- the kiddies won't get it.) The movie starts with a bomber and a refueling tanker engaged in mid-flight coitus. Then introduces General Jack D. Ripper, who falsely believes himself to be sexually powerful. He knows his strength lies in his bodily fluids however -- so while he is quite good with the women, he does not give them his bodily fluids, and doesn't lack energy after sex. General 'Buck' Turgidson -- ie. Turgid-son -- is portrayed as sex-obsessed -- in one scene, his mistress calls him at the Pentagon's war room, where the President is being briefed. Dr. Strangelove, got so excited at the thought of being part of rebuilding the species after the end of the world that he got out of his wheelchair and started to walk. The best however, was Major T.J. 'King' Kong, riding the bomb -- the biggest phallic symbol -- to the Russians.
In the movie, an American airbase general goes bananas, and directs his fleet of bombers to strike at their targets in the USSR. Once the order is given, there is no way to stop them -- the bombers went out of radio contact. The general wants to rid the world of the communist infestation -- their undermining and brainwashing of free countries everywhere. The general has some interesting theories of the commie invasion and the purity of bodily fluids. He is betting that the Pentagon will launch a full scale nuclear strike at the USSR -- because if they don't, USSR, which posses nuclear retaliation capabilities, will strike at the US once they've detected US bombers heading to Soviet targets. Into this situation, the president of the United States is thrust. Either go full scale with first strike, and in the process, lose about 20 million American lives -- or do the unthinkable -- call the Russians and say, "Oops!" Unfortunately, the "Oops!" is on the President -- as the Russians are in possession of a Doomsday device that will counteract by annihilating all life on the planet. (If you don't get that, don't worry -- it's part of the concept of 'mutual assured destruction' -- which itself is insane.
Peter Sellers pulls off masterful performances as a British captain on loan to the US Air Force, the President of the United States, and the former Nazi scientist, Dr. Strangelove. The other notable performances was by George C. Scott, as the sometimes raving General 'Buck' Turgidson, and Slim Pickens, as Major T.J. 'King' Kong, who gets to ride the bomb to the Ruskies. Sterling Hayden's performance as the psychotic Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper was frightening. He pulled it off so well, that one is left to wonder how far fetched the whole escapade really is.
One of the metaphors running through the movie is sex. (This is a PG movie, don't worry -- the kiddies won't get it.) The movie starts with a bomber and a refueling tanker engaged in mid-flight coitus. Then introduces General Jack D. Ripper, who falsely believes himself to be sexually powerful. He knows his strength lies in his bodily fluids however -- so while he is quite good with the women, he does not give them his bodily fluids, and doesn't lack energy after sex. General 'Buck' Turgidson -- ie. Turgid-son -- is portrayed as sex-obsessed -- in one scene, his mistress calls him at the Pentagon's war room, where the President is being briefed. Dr. Strangelove, got so excited at the thought of being part of rebuilding the species after the end of the world that he got out of his wheelchair and started to walk. The best however, was Major T.J. 'King' Kong, riding the bomb -- the biggest phallic symbol -- to the Russians.
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