1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Dr. Strangelove

#441- Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick


Plot Summary: General Jack D. Ripper orders a bombing from the 843rd over the Soviet border. Ripper orders Group Captain Lionel Mandrake to alert the base, but Mandrake soon learns that Ripper has gone insane and there is no war order. When he tries to stop Ripper, he is locked inside his office as they combat the rouge soldiers trying to attack them on the base. At the Pentagon, President Merkin Muffley and General Buck Turgidson try to get Ripper's orders stopped, especially when they learn of a Doomsday device thanks to the President's mysterious advisor, Dr. Strangelove.


The further we go into this Stanley Kubrick retrospective, the more movies we get to that I've wanted to see. Dr. Strangelove was one of those films that I have heard so many good things about, and with great actors like Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and an anti-Cold War social commentary attached, I for sure thought this would become an all-time favorite. And when I watched it, I definitely got a handful of chuckles out of it. But it wasn't that instant classic I was expecting. So what went wrong? Let's find out...

The film stars Peter Sellers as the titular character of Dr. Strangelove. Sellers plays a grand total of three roles in this film, and honestly, Strangelove is my LEAST favorite of his roles. He's in it the least and doesn't contribute as much as the other two roles in my opinion. Then again, he's got the name on the film's title and has at least one or two memorable lines and is probably the most iconic character when thinking about this film, so I guess that's gotta account for something. Oh and he gets the last word in a moment that absolutely proves how brilliant and insane Strangelove is.

Sellers also stars as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. Mandrake has his quirks, but he is definitely more of a man of action than anything else. He takes things so seriously, yet handles things so with perfect comedic timing, that it's easy to see how he was able to immortalize himself as Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther movies.

My favorite role from Sellers in this film was actually as President Merkin Muffley. Seriously, every time I heard him talk was comedic gold. Without giving too much away, there is a running gag with him using the name Dimitri. After about a minute of delivery, every time he said that name got funnier and funnier throughout the entire film. Forget about Strangelove, in my opinion, President Muffley is his greatest contribution to this film. Just knowing how much he also cares more for his reputation than the safety of his citizens is both pathetic and hilarious.

One of the more dynamic characters in the film is General Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott. Not only is he a strong patriot, but he also tries to be a voice of reason, and an opportunistic strategist all at once. There's no real way of predicting what side Turgidson is going to go next. Scott's involvement in the film is actually a pretty interesting story on Kubrick's directing style. Wanting Scott to be more humorous, Kubrick told Scott to be more over the top during "practice" takes, then kept the cameras rolling and used those takes instead. When Scott saw the final product, he vowed to never work with Kubrick again. I personally think it worked in his favor, since Turgidson's facial responses are so goofy and hammy that you can't help but love this character.

The biggest legacy for Dr. Strangelove is in its anti-war commentaries on the Cold War. One of Kubrick's biggest requests for the film was for the round table in the Pentagon to be made of green felt, similar to that of a card or pool table. Ironically, it is at that same table where they are discussing the ethics of war like gambling with the lives of all the world's citizens. Very profound Kubrick, bravo.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Dr. Strangelove is a mixed bag on my journey through all things Kubrick. His quirks as a director are definitely present, and Scott and Sellers own this film with their performances, but I feel like it's a step backward from his previous works at this point in his career. I definitely would advise all Kubrick fans to own it, but casual moviegoers could stick to a weekend rental.

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and movie images are copyrighted by Columbia Pictures