Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Starring
Peter Sellers
Director
Stanley Kubrick
Awards
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actor - Peter Sellers
Best Director - Stanley Kubrick
Best Picture
Best (Adapted) Screenplay
Plot Synopsis
Dark comedy about nuclear holocaust and an out-of-control armed
forces. A mad Air Force general, convinced that the Russians have found a unique means of
poisoning the American water supply, sends forth a plane to drop nuclear bombs on the
Soviet Union. Pity that no one knows the code to bring it back. Exacerbating the problem:
the "doomsday machine," a new Russian weapon programmed to blow up earth in the
event of an attack. And no one knows how to stop that, either. As the American plane,
piloted by a gung-ho, good-old-boy Texan, nears its target, pandemonium breaks out in the
war room as the hapless, hopeless President, a megalomaniac scientist, and a randy, macho
general, struggle fruitlessly over what to do, or whether to do anything at all.
Film Notes
"Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley
Kubrick's cold war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove
is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D.
Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious
bodily fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron
of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so-
called "Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S.
president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet
counterpart. Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr.
Strangelove; George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose
presidential advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about "acceptable
losses." With dialogue ("You can't fight here! This is the war room!") and
images (Slim Pickens's character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of
our cultural vocabulary, Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics' lists of the
all-time best." (Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com)
Filmed at Shepperton Studios, England. Complete title: Dr.
Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Additional cast:
Jack Creley (Staines); Frank Berry (Lieutenant H.R. Dietrich); Glenn Beck (Lieutenant W.D.
Kivel); Paul Tamarin (Lieutenant B. Goldberg); Gordon Tanner (General Faceman); Robert
O'Neil (Admiral Randolph); Roy Stephens (Frank). Film debut for actor James Earl Jones.
Released theatrically in the USA January 30, 1964.
Rated: NR
Rated: NR