DR. STRANGELOVE

Part Three of My Examination of War in Film / 50, 50 Link

"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops! Uh, depending on the breaks"

I think Stuart Smalley said it best: "Man, Stanley Kubrick had some balls." He was a trailblazing artist, a man who broke through all conceivable boundaries in conventional cinema. He made a science fiction film that featured little action, almost no character interaction or dialogue, and no explosions (2001). He made a film that humanized a child molester (LOLITA). He also made DR. STRANGELOVE, exemplifying what would happen if the U.S. and Russia exchanged nuclear blows. Not only did he make the movie, but he made it smack dab in the middle of the cold war.

Kubrick was also a man of artistic intelligence. While he usually stuck to the script, he knew better than to limit the talents of comedic legend Peter Sellers, who plays three roles in STRANGELOVE, mostly improvised. Sellers is regarded as a comedic genius for good reason. He was able to morph into his roles, and for most of the film I wasn't able to notice that he was in nearly every scene. He plays American President Merkin Muffley, who finds himself in a situation involving a psychotic U.S. general red-lighting a group of bombers to fly over Russia and do the unthinkable.

The titular character, Dr. Strangelove, is brought in to advise the members of the 'war room', a group of military officials sort of ran by General Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott. These are unquestionably the two funniest roles in the film. As Strangelove, Peter Sellers spits out the bare minimum amount of scripted dialogue the script calls for, and is 90% improv. Scott relishes his role, a big ole' American cowboy of a general, who has sex with his secretary (not just in a sexual way, he deeply respects her as a human being too) when he's not busy trying to bail his country out.

This isn't just a physical comedy though. The satire is rich and thick here, and Kubrick doesn't pussy out with the ending, as I thought he would. Maybe it is him being a revolutionary filmmaker and me being part of a movie-making generation filled with thrillers with cop-out endings, but the ending of this film floored me. The tenacity Kubrick had to not only make a movie like this at such a volatile time as in the middle of the Cold War, but to end it the way that such a conflict would end is remarkable.

A-