Dr strange love

That’s it! It’s all go boys the communists are attacking! Plan R is afoot.

General Ripper has gone over the president’s head and is about to start world war 3! Can he be stoped before it’s to late?

‘You can’t fight in here, this is the war room!’

Mandrake played by Peter seller’s nervously try’s to convince general Ripper to call his attack off. Meanwhile the president also played by Peter Sellers sends in the army and try’s to tell his drunken communist counterpart that there is a nuclear bomb heading his way via phone call. This is one of the highlights of the first half of the film.

Then the doomsday machine comes in to play!

General Ripper has lost it. He thinks that the communist are poising the water and destroying there bodily fluids. He’s casually explaining this to Mandrake as his base is under attack.

Finally we meet Dr Strangelove (also played by Peter Sellers) while we go back to the presidents war room. He’s a bit of an oddball German in a wheelchair so of course he’s an ex nazi. He explains the doomsday device to us.

‘Peace is our profession’ the slogan on the army base billboard as war rages on in the background. General Ripper is talking about his giving essence to women, and torture while Mandrake desperately try’s to get the stand down code. Then bang! Ripper is dead he shoots himself in the head.

We are on the plane with the bomb now and a missile blows up near them causing damage to the aircraft. They recover though.

Mandrake struggles to explain what happened but he thinks he’s worked out the code. There is a great scene with mandrake and his gard while his making a telephone call to the president on a pay phone.

All the planes have been called off or destroyed except the damaged plane. The president try’s to get his Russian counterpart to destroy the last plane instead of them setting off the doomsday device. The plane is loosing fuel fast and it’s not going to make its target so they switch to a closer target. But just as they are about to drop the bomb the bomb doors are Jammed will they make it?

What follows is probably the most iconic scene of the whole film. I let you watch it instead of telling you how it goes down.

Dr Strangelove talks to the president about preserving the human race in a deep mine. While his one hand try’s to give a nazi salute.

This is a strange film. It try’s so hard to be funny and despite having one of the greatest comedy actors in history Peter Sellers play 3 roles it still falls short in my opinion. There’s no background on the strange Dr Strangelove although his actions are funny. I feel as though there’s no context to his character and I struggled to relate he just comes across as an offensive stereotype. Mandrake and general Ripper have he best chemistry in the film. Mandrake fighting to survive through General rippers madness and still trying to convince him to get the code. My favourite scenes in the film both involve a telephone. I did love it when Mandrake was desperately trying to get hold of the president but didn’t have enough change for the pay phone!

Over all it’s an enjoyable film. I think if I watched this maybe 25 years ago I would have thought it one of the funniest films ever made. But today I’ve seen to much, I’ve seen better and I frankly tolerated the first half of the film. The second half is considerably better.

3 offensively stereotypical wheelchair bound German adviser to the president of the United States who happens to be played by the same guy out of 5