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

There's not a false note in Dr. Strangelove. This 1964 black comedy about the ultimate madness of nuclear conflict and the bloody folly of war is a masterpiece, and the best Cold War movie ever made.

From the suggestive credit sequence of a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker coupling for a romantic mid-air refueling to the deeply silly names for all the characters, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is the funniest movie you'll ever see about the threat of global nuclear devastation.

Air Base commanding General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), has gone completely nuts, and sent his bombers to attack the Soviet Union, in the hopes that this first strike will leave the U.S. president no choice but to attack in force to prevent a massive Soviet retaliation.

Meanwhile, the Soviets, weary of the unending cost of the arms race, have built a "doomsday machine" that will automatically plunge the entire world into nuclear winter if the Soviet Union is attacked. The problem is, they failed to announce their ultimate deterrent before General Ripper lost his marbles, so unless the U.S. can recall the bombers, it's curtains for every living creature on the planet.

The action plays out on one of the B-52s headed for Russia, in Ripper's office at the fictional Burpelson Air Force Base, and in the super-secret underground War Room where the president and his advisors scramble to avoid Armageddon.

Peter Sellers is astounding in a triple role as mild-mannered U.S. President Merkin Muffley, trying to save the world; beleaguered Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a doughty RAF officer trying to find the secret code that will recall the bombers; and Dr. Strangelove, a wheelchair-bound German scientist who's equal parts Werner Von Braun and Henry Kissinger on mushrooms.

While Sellers amazes in all three roles, George C. Scott nearly steals the movie as General "Buck" Turgidson, a gum-chomping zealot bursting with red-blooded American testosterone and a healthy dose of Commie paranoia. As the planes streak toward their targets inside Russia, he advises Muffley that "While I don't want to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like General Ripper has exceeded his authority." That proves to be the understatement of the century when an ocean-eyed Ripper confides in Mandrake his theory that the Communists are "sapping our precious bodily fluids."

Slim Pickens is a stone hoot as the pilot of the B-52, Major T. J. "King" Kong, gamely assuring his crew that there might be some "purty big promotions" in store for them in a post-nuclear world. (Sellers would have played that role too, but was injured during filming.) Look for a young James Earl Jones as the plane's bombardier, Lothar Zogg, and Keenan Wynn's deadpan turn as a by-the-book sergeant named Bat Guano.

Producer/Director Stanley Kubrick started to make a straightforward drama based on Peter George's book "Red Alert," but the idea of two superpowers willing to annihilate the entire world in their own petty power struggle was simply too absurd. Kubrick lets them bring the world to the brink of destruction, and then immediately demonstrate that they're ready to make the same mistakes all over again.

The movie accurately forecasted the economic collapse of the Soviet Union under the weight of ever-increasing defense spending twenty years before it actually happened. But its sharpest insights are reserved for the colossal egos of the men who see combat as an aphrodisiac, and discuss the death of millions as "acceptable losses."

The 40 years of nuclear standoff that defined the Cold War may just be a hiccup in history that we'll have to explain to our grandkids one day, but Kubrick's darkly funny classic Dr. Strangelove will resonate as long as there are soldiers, politicians, and power struggles.

Recommended for You

If you liked Dr. Strangelove, you may like other Peter Sellers films, such as Casino Royale, A Shot in the Dark or Being There. You may also like such anti-war satires as MASH.

Just the Facts:

Year: 1964, Black and white
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Running Time: 93 minutes
Studio: Columbia Pictures