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

Dr Strangelove begins with a note insisted upon by the US Air force - they deemed some of the details in Kubrick's film to be too close to reality and were worried it would terrify audiences:

"It is the stated position of the United States Air Force that their safeguards would prevent the occurrence of such events as are depicted in this film. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the chateau portrayed in this film are meant to represent any real persons living or dead."

Both parts of this statement are a lie. Kubrick believed that there was in fact a serious threat that a psychotic figure somewhere in command could start a war. "I'm not assured that somewhere in the Pentagon or Red Army upper echelons there does not exist the real life prototype of General Jack D Ripper," Kubrick said in a Playboy interview. In fact General Jack D Ripper is said to be based on real life cigar-chewing head of Strategic Air Command, Curtis LeMay who in 1957 declared to a congressional committee that if a Soviet attack ever seemed likely, he planned to "knock the shit out of them before they ever got off the ground."

Air force Commander Curtis LeMay

Dr Strangelove himself was based on Wernher von Braun, the ex-Nazi rocket scientist who went to work for the American Space program after the war.

Ex Nazi Rocket Scientist Wernher von Braun

So convincing is Kubrick's vision that when Ronald Reagan first stepped into the White House he asked to see the War Room - which of course was one of Kubrick's fabrications.

Kubrick set out to adapt Peter George's novel Red Alert (1958) as a serious thriller but as he wrote the screenplay he discovered a similar film with a near-identical premise was being made by Sidney Lumet (Failsafe (1964)). He also found some of the scenarios were absurd that he decided the story would be better told as a nightmarish satire.

"As I kept trying to imagine the way in which things would really happen, ideas kept coming to me which I would discard because they were so ludicrous. I kept saying to myself: 'I can't do this. People will laugh.'" Stanley Kubrick to Joseph Gelmis in 1970.

I have no hesitation in agreeing with the sentiment that Kubrick was one of the greatest filmmakers to ever live, and this is my personal favourite of his works. It's the funniest and most accessible of his films. His films are often accused of being cold and emotionless as though they are films made by a complete sociopath who struggles to put human feeling on film whilst achieving everything else in the filmmaking process with near perfection. It's a valid critique; many of his best films including 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining all feel like technical achievements, somewhat clinical in their approach to humanity. Dr Strangelove might have suffered from the same critique had it not been for some exceptional performances, most notably by Peter Sellers.

As both Mandrake and President Merkin Muffley, Sellers delivers two very empathetic straight characters who must retain composure whilst dealing with the highest of stakes - these two characters are the heart of the film and more than make up for Kubrick's cold storytelling. The eponymous Dr Strangelove allows Sellers to go a bit wilder with a wheelchair bound ex-Nazi scientist with a ridiculous accent and a body still apparently patriotic to his former Fuhrer - he delivers the punchline to the movie and is one of the all-time great character creations that has since become copied and parodied to redundancy. Kubrick says The Inventor from Fritz Lang's Metropolis inspired the one black gloves hand and over-all aesthetic for the character, but otherwise it's Wernher von Braun through and through. Sellers was intended to play a fourth character in the movie, Major 'King' Kong, but Sellers couldn't get a hold on the character and fought with Kubrick asking that he find someone else to play the role. When Kubrick insisted it must be Sellers - he wanted the fate of the world to be in the hands of Peter Sellers in almost every scene - Sellers 'accidentally' twisted his ankle meaning Kubrick was left with no other choice but to find someone else to fill the role. He turned to the hilariously appropriately named Slim Pickens, who whilst playing things straight is still full of ridiculous bombast and feels made for the role.

Other key performers include Sterling Hayden as cigar chomping General Jack D Ripper, who, as mentioned was based on real life Curtis LeMay. His conspiracy theories that the Russians are using drinking water and women to steal our 'precious bodily fluids' are never fully explained and really feel like you've stumbled into a modern "red-pill" political 4chan board. Again he's played entirely straight and it's hard to know whether to laugh or not. George C Scott might just be my favourite performance in the film though as General Buck Turgidson. Scott was known as a great dramatic actor and wasn't used to playing comedies. He was apparently upset when he saw that Kubrick had used his biggest, most manic takes and was concerned that he came across as a buffoon - of course, that's kind of the point, but Scott's performance stops short of ridiculous mugging for the camera and feels like a General reduced to being an excitable boy. For those watching closely you might also spot a young James Earl Jones who would go on to voice Darth Vader and Mufasa in both versions of The Lion King.

I'll admit, the tone of the film is extremely odd to say the least. The first scenes really doesn't feel like much of a comedy, with only the innuendo based character names (Merkin Muffley, Buck Turgidson, Bat Guano) and phallic symbolism of the opening title sequence giving any real hint of the humour at play. As the film goes on things become more farcical but it's still somewhat difficult to laugh with the threat of assured mutual destruction. To fully confirm the farcical nature of the film, Kubrick and the cast of the War Room spent several days filming an elaborate custard pie fight that would serve as the film's finale. Chefs were on hand to cook over a thousand pies each day for fodder. Ultimately Kubrick cut the sequence regarding it to be a bit too much and I think he made the right decision, though the photos and footage from these days of shooting can be found online and it's pretty impressive.

My favourite genre of movie is the Dark Comedy and, with nuclear destruction as the film's finale, they really don't come much darker than this. It's entirely absurd but also completely plausible. The closest film in terms of tone might be Chris Morris' Four Lions and that was almost 50 years later.

5 Custard pies out of 5