Top 250: #24

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

Note: This is the first of the IMDB.com’s top 250 list that I am reviewing. I will number them according to the rank that they have on the day I watch. Given the nature of the list, that rank may fluctuate somewhat.

Plot Overview: A commanding army officer goes a bit nuts and orders his bombers to drop "the bomb" on Russia which will trigger global annihilation. Can the mistake be uncovered in time and the bomb stopped, or is the world doomed?

I found this movie in a rack at Safeway for four dollars. As I had been wanting to see this movie for a long time, I impulsively bought it. And now I am watching it. The first thing that caught my attention was the advertisement before the movie for the great new wonder of movie technology, a thing called D-V-D. I was excited at the thought of this new technology and I hope it arrives soon.

Fun quote: "I’ve been to one world fair, a picnic and a rodeo and that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of headphones.

The bomber pilot was keeping a cowboy hat locked up in a safe aboard the plane. He gets the code that orders him to proceed to drop the bomb and spends a minute opening th safe to he can wear the hat as he does.

The special effects are not too bad for 1964.

Aaaaannnddd now the crazy army general is drinking on duty, and he has a gun. That is probably not good.

Call me crazy, but I think this guy hates communism. If he thinks that’s bad, wait until rap music starts. Then he’ll really be upset.

He thinks the communists want to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. I’ve heard less plausible conspiracy theories.

"It’s beginning to look like the General has exceeded his authority." You think?

I do not want to be General Turgidson. He had to tell the president every bit of bad news possible. He now has about six pieces of gum in his mouth and looks like a scolded school child. And then his girlfriend calls him in the Pentagon’s war room. Who gives that number?

This is just bizarre. They are discussing starting nuclear war, and yet it is a funny movie. I fully understand the concept of a dark comedy. "No more than 10 to 20 million civilians killed tops. Depending on the breaks." Said with a smile, like that is a good thing.

Why does the bomber survival package for the all male plane crew include lipstick?

"Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!"

This is the most awkward phone conversation I have ever heard. Never call the Russian president with news about nuclear annihilation when he has been drinking. It leads to arguing like six year olds.

The crazy General’s name is Jack D. Ripper. Clever.

Apparently flouride in the drinking water is a communist plot.

This is an interesting look at the cold war, made right in the middle of that particular conflict. It shows insight into the absurdity of the ever escalating arms race and an sympathy for the Russians.

In the midst of the chaos, a character shows up named Colonel ‘Bat’ Guano. He figures that this whole situation has something to do with "preversions".

They are trying to fire the explosive bolts to open the bomb bay doors...the doors that are right below the bomb...the big nuclear bomb. Personally, I don’t thionk I would want to set off explosives that near a nuclear weapon. But that’s just me.

There’s the iconic image of man riding a nuclear bomb, waving his cowboy hat in the air, all the way to its target.

He’ll be fine.

A very young James Earl Jones is in this movie!

They are descending into absurdity. I have never heard the phrase "breed prodigiously" used quite so often.

And that is the end of mankind.

Summary: Wow, what can I say about this movie. It is both absurd and profoundly disturbing all at once. Stanley Kubrick, both director and writer, takes a serious and frightening situation and turns it into an absurd farce. Yet, despite that, or perhaps because of it, the seriousness of the situation is in fact heightened. It shows how easy it would be for a crisis to get out of hand and to stay out of hand despite everyone’s best efforts.
Peter Sellers is amazing in three roles that are profoundly different from each other. His president is gravely serious, his RAF officer is very personal and believable, and his crippled ex-Nazi genius scientist is disturbingly amusing. George C. Scott does an amazing job as an over-the-top General.
I have looked forward to seeing this movie for a long time now, and I was not disappointed. I recommend watching this film.