As a testament to the incredible ability of Peter Sellers, you guys, like many, missed that he played Group Captain Mandrake, AND President Muffley AND Dr Strangelove. He's a legend of British comedy. Fun fact, he was also meant to play Major Kong, the B-52 pilot, but Sellers said it would be too much work for him to do and Kubrick agreed.
Rumor is that Sellers resented the number of roles he was asked to play. So he shave them off by either faking or leaning in to the ankle injury which would prevent him from climbing the ladder needed to get in to the hanging bomber set.
"Gee, I wish WE had one of those doomsday machines!" I love the absurdity of that line! Just one is enough to kill the whole planet, so if they've got one, we need one too.
I want to take a moment to big up Slim Pickens playing the pilot. He was never told this was a comedy, so he played it completely straight and he's still hilarious, because Slim Pickens just was. Between this and Blazing Saddles he has truly earned his immortality.
Slim Pickens was also a member of Western filmmaker Sam Peckinpah's stock company (Major Dundee, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue, The Getaway, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid).
Peter Sellers played three roles in this movie: RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Strangelove. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
@@christineduckworth5712 And occasional UK slang, usually at least slightly derogatory, for an American (similar to " 'murican ", in a faux-Texan accent).
Peter Sellers was a genius, from the Pink Panther movies to "Being There" to this movie,... where he plays 3 separate characters! What a great actor he was!
Anybody who grew up during the Cold War resonates with this movie on a marrow-deep level. To someone who wasn't there at the time, there's no way to explain what it's like to go to sleep every single night knowing -- and sometimes expecting -- that the world could end before you woke up. Everything about it was nightmarish, but after a while there was no way to avoid the utter absurdity of it: we were in a world run by idiots and lunatics and never more than one twitch of a finger or damnedfool misunderstanding from being incinerated (and incineration was best-case scenario). Eventually there was no difference between laughter and tears.
I remember air-raid drills in 1-4th grades. Down to the basement, duck-and-cover. I distinctly remember the sound of the siren, which ran every Friday at 11:00. It started low, quickly rose to an irritating high pitch, which it maintained for what seemed like an eternity, only to die back down, and just before stopping, it did it again, again and again.
I remember the once a week air raid siren test in elementary school. At most we would get under the desks. This was the mid 70's in Tacoma WA. Several major targets for Soviet ICBM's were nearby: Bremerton/Bangor, JBLM(at the time Fort Lewis and McChord AFB). I think BFI would have been a likely target as well. If I remember correctly, a few years after they stopped doing the weekly siren test and you only heard the radio test of the "Emergency Broadcast System." We didn't do any drills in school for it after that, but it was still something that people talked about. The Day After tv movie was a big deal when it came out in 1983. I did read Red Alert, the book that the movie is based on. The book is completely serious, but has a different, happier ending. I don't know how it would hold up, but it was entertaining to me as a young teenager.
If I'm remembering correctly, I believe Sellers more or less ad-libbed the entire one-sided phone conversations you hear with "Dmitri" (as well as most of his dialogue, but the first phone conversation is one of the funniest parts of a great movie). Just incredible timing and comic instincts.
That whole "I'm fine, you're fine, we're both fine" bit was actually very similar to a bit that Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan did on the Goon Show in the 50's. The Goon Show was full of those kinds of silly, meandering, stilted conversations, so Peter already had plenty of practice with that sort of thing. There are recordings of some Goon Show episodes available online, if you like that sort of humor it'll have you on the floor😁
It's a testament to Sellers' intelligence and strength as an actor that Kubrick, famously obsessive over getting his scenes right, let him improvise so much.
Strangelove isn't the doctor's real name. It was an anglicized version of his original German name. He's one of the nazi scientists the US let in after WWII under Operation:Papaerclip. So, Dr. Strangelove and his idea on how to "survive" represent the movie's theme of the nihilistic endgame fascism. The title is really the US military/industrial complex's strange love of power and death.
Actually, in the movie someone asks Strangelove what his German name was and he answers; my father, who took German in college, told me that his German name translates to "strange love."
I audited a film appreciation class in college and this was one of the films we studied. There are TONS of sexual allusions in this film, which relate to the idea of war as a reaction to men's insecurity of their masculinity/sexual performance. For example, the idea of precious bodily fluids being the impetus for starting nuclear war. The names of most of the main characters have sexual connotations (Buck Turgidson, an erect penis is "turgid" -- the ineffectual (impotent) president is named Merkin Muffley, a "merkin" is a female pubic wig -- Dr. "Strangelove", etc). The "serious" discussion of the male sexual fantasy plot of ensuring a huge female to male ratio (with only the most attractive females) being used to repopulate mankind. As you noted, the opening shots of the planes being refueled are symbolic of intercourse. One of the greatest film satires ever--really demonstrates the insanity of war.
The lines about "precious bodily fluids" and "fluoridation" are references to the "John Birch Society" paranoia. Bob Dylan did a song about how the "Society" sees "Communists" everywhere - "The Talking John Birch Society Blues".
And then there's Lionel Mandrake. A Mandrake is a plant, the root of which is shaped like a human form. It has been said that whoever holds the root, has great sexual powers.
As a teenager, I saw this in a theater when it was first released, and the audience was laughing uproariously, while also feeling the fear evoked by the events portrayed.
If you want to see a true dramatic version of this basic story, I would recommend 'Fail Safe' with Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau. It was released in the same year as Dr. Strangelove, but is a completely straight nuclear thiller.
"Fail Safe"/"Dr. Strangelove" is an awesome contrast in tragedy/comedy, and yes, they both came out the same year (1964). Difference is"Fail Safe" is dead serious and will make you cry as hard as you laughed at Strangelove. For that reason I'd recommend saving the funny one for last, but either way, it makes for an interesting double feature.
Fail Safe *was* going to come out before Strangelove, but Kubrick insisted Strangelove be released first (same studio made both). Fonda later said he wouldn't have done Fail Safe at all had he seen Strangelove.
@@mobyworm As it happens, I just rewatched Fail Safe a few days ago and it actually did make me cry. As much as I like Dr. Strangelove, it's a shame that Fail Safe got overshadowed by it.
Fail Safe is a terrifying movie because it makes the same points as Strangelove, but without the buffoonery. You can see how the decisions can be made by totally rational actors if the "right" errors in the system are made. "I wanna say - and this is very important - at the end we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war. We came *that* close to nuclear war at the end. Rational individuals: Kennedy was rational, Kruschev was rational, Castro was rational; rational individuals came *that close* to total destruction of their societies. And that danger exists today." - McNamara, The Fog of War
The ‘Bay of Pigs’ was the failed overthrow of the Cuban government whilst the close nuclear annihilation you were thinking of was the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’.
During my time as an Army officer I studied subjects and courses such as Defence Studies and International Affairs, War Studies, and so on. This film very cleverly satirises global affairs and it is so funny because it is very well conceived and whoever wrote the script understood the subject matter incredibly well. Imagine an audience of Army Officers, all with such knowledge. It had us in hysterics. Good for you for discovering this film.
Vera Lynn's "We'll meet again" playing over the montage of nuclear explosions remains to me one of the most haunting moments in film. For context, it was recorded in 1939 and was one of the most popular songs (at least among the Brits) during WWII. I think today we naturally discount the cultural importance of songs like these during the pre-television era. Even twenty years after the war, when this film was released, audiences certainly knew the song and likely had some emotional connection to it beyond the juxtaposition with the moving images of nuclear annihilation. Loved your reaction!!
I liked Simone's reactions ! On a serious note: A movie "Fail Safe" with Henry Fonda was released same time (or near). It was serious. Kubrick started out making a accurate film about nuclear war. Writing the script they kept noticing the absurdity of Mass Nuclear Destruction. And the absurdity of the deterrent of MAD. Mass Assured Destruction of both sides. It morphed into a Black Comedy. It had a "pie fight" at the end --in the "War Room" but it was cut from the film.
One of the greatest films ever made. The President's one sided call to the Premier is a master class of the one sided conversation bit. Bob Newhart himself couldn't have done better
11:05 funny story about George C Scott's performance in this movie - Kubrick had Scott do one ridiculous over-exaggerated take for each scene, assuring the actor each time that it was just to try things out and they'd use one of the more serious ones for the final cut. Kubrick then used all of the weird, manic takes and none of the normal ones.
And the whole backwards trip into that weird somersault thing was a total accident by Scott. He basically tripped over himself while walking backwards and Kubrick liked it so much he kept it in the film.
Which apparently infuriated Scott! He hated having been tricked; he hated having those manic performances on screen, as he considered himself a dramatic actor. That's what I've heard, anyway. It completely works for the film. Kubrick may have been a real a**hole to his actors, but he sure got results and made great films!
Also I wanted to point out the dry, deadpan performance by Keenan Wynn ("Batshit" guy), who does have a history of wild comedic performances (such as in The Nutty Professor, and other Disney films, etc), but in this one that deadpan seriousness in the face of ridiculous circumstances was just the right note.
It's really entertaining to see your reaction to a movie that was so topical 60 years ago. It was a big hit at the time and yes, people definately got the irony and the message. There were two big popular movies about nuclear war in the 1960's. This one, the comedy, and "Fail Safe," the realistic one. However, this one was actually more realistic. There was a scare in 1960 when a base commander sealed his base and sent his planes (in the UK). It didn't get this far, but some of the planes were recalled when they were over East Germany. I get chills when I recall how close we were then and other times. I wonder how close we are today.
Also real cases of the reverse, where a Russian early-warning operator(Stanislav Petrov) potentially saved the world - he saw data suggesting missiles were launched by the US. He thought it was more likely(but wasn't certain) it wasn't a real signal, and didn't pass it on to his superiors. Likewise 1 of 3 commanders(Vasili Arkhipov) on a Russian submarine didn't agree to fire a missile during the cuban missile crisis. They were being depth-charged with non-fatal explosions to try and force them to the surface(which could indicate to them that a war had started), had no outside communication, were low on oxygen, and instructions said to launch the nuke if they were under attack.
In the movie the base commander is a conspiracist loon - and today in reality conspiracist loons have been elected to prominent positions of power and might soon be controlling elections in key swing states
I love the scene at 29:00. Actor Peter Bull, playing Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky, almost breaks out laughing when Peter Sellers starts beating his arm. I have no idea how many times they needed to do that scene because of people laughing, but the smile Peter is trying so hard to suppress tells me it required a few takes.
He's laughing because that wasn't in the script. One thing Stanley kubrick usually hated was actors deviating from his script. Normally, that actor would have known that was coming. For all the movies Kubrick made, he made two exceptions to his 'Stick-to-the-script' rule: Peter Sellers as Dr Strangelove. and Ronald Lee Ermey, as the drill instructor in 'Full Metal Jacket'.
@@klat2baraada579 - apparently he got Ermey to improvise lines for two days, had it all transcribed, put his favourite lines into the script and then Ermey learned the scripted version word for word.
I always took the significance of Doctor Strangelove to be this: he's clearly still a Nazi in his heart, and by the end of the film he's envisioning a eugenics-based future for what remains of society. Nazi science and Nazi scientists helped to create the precipice of nuclear destruction that characterised the cold war - for example, Nazi V2 Rockets were the work of Werner Von Braun who ended up working to develop the US missiles that would be used to deliver nuclear bombs. A lot of Nazi scientists ended up working for both the US and the Soviet Union. So, the character of Doctor Strangelove highlights this, and suggests a bitter irony that even though the Nazis were defeated by the Russians and the Americans, they could get the last laugh by slaughtering everybody and making the survivors live by their rules. Funnily enough one of the James Bond novels does something similar, with a British missile developer turning out to be a Nazi infiltrator intent on wreaking revenge on those who destroyed the Third Reich.
One of my favorite jokes in this movie is super subtle. When they show Major Kong (played by Slim Pickens, who was also in Blazing Saddles) reading a Playboy, the woman in the centerfold is General Turgidson's secretary. To top it off, the magazine covering her butt in the centerfold photo is a copy of Foreign Affairs, which is one of the leading foreign policy publications in the US.
Fun fact: General Ripper and Turgidson were based on a guy called General Curtis Lemay. A warhawk who advocated for the bombing of Cuba during the Missile Crisis.
The colonel who led the invasion force is Keenan Wynn, son of Ed Wynn. He played a villainous businessman in several Disney movies, Alonzo (sp?) Hawk. The movies were "The Absent-Minded Professor", "The Son of Flubber", and "Herbie Rides Again".
Awesome! I get to be the first one to post the fairly well known bts story that Sellers wasn’t actually ever supposed to stand up while playing Strangelove. His reaction in the movie is the real take of him realizing his mistake and next couple of line were just him going with it and riffing. Such a classic moment in such a classic movie and it was technically a “mistake”.
George was totally correct about the music and the plane's penetration! That's why Kubrick chose that music because of the suggestive nature of the act of refueling the plane.
@@phila3884 It's both. The movie loves the dissonance between the cold war and life going on, but it also loves making fun of the hypermasculine sexualized military culture.
It was an instrumental version of "Try a Little Tenderness" Which was originally recorded in 1932! The Otis Redding (backed by Booker T. and the M.G.s) version was over 30 years later.
"Purity of essence"...my favorite movie ever. Hilariously disturbing and disturbingly hilarious. I really can't think of any other movie with this incredible mix of perfect writing, visuals, performances, direction, and music. I've watched and re-watched a lot of great movies, but this is my 1 absolute eternal favorite. I don't expect to see a more perfect movie in this lifetime, it's still remembered 60 years later for good reason.
That was probably my all-time favorite reaction of anything by anyone. I was worried they were going to hate it for a while, but then you start to see them get into it. Very enjoyable. Sellers was amazing in all three roles.
Also, the same guy, Pablo Ferro, designed both this and MIB's opening credits sequences. He designed many famous credits sequences and bits of famous films, similar to Saul Bass, the hugely famous designer of many Hitchcock credit sequences and posters, including Psycho and Vertigo.
The marching melody you heard during the plane scenes is shared across two songs, When Johnny Comes Marching Home and Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye. One is a pro-war song, the other an anti-war song. With no lyrics, it's up to the viewer to interpret it how you wish.
Growing up I had a neighbor who was a crewman on a B-52 during the Cuban missile crises. He said that the planes were prepped and ready to go with the crews all sleeping with their planes so they could be airborne in 15-20 minutes in case of attack. Once airborne the pilot would open sealed orders to learn what the target was. Since they were stationed in Germany it was presumed the target would be in the Soviet Union somewhere. At the briefing they asked ‘Where do we go after the mission?’ The reply was ‘Anywhere you want cuz we won’t be here to come back to.’ Scarey times so Hollywood was trying to show the futility of war and mutually assured destruction.
And here's a "fun" fact about the Cuban Missile Crises. They had nukes in Cuba, ready to go! They were actually tactical nukes to be used against our Navy to completely destroy any invading force before they make a landing. At the time the U.S. had no idea! And humanity lives on because the crises was defused before we actually invaded as planned.
@@geraldcorona9910 Which by the way was in response to similar missiles that were already stationed in Turkey and could strike Moscow. They were dismantled within the year after the CMC, and it is widely believed this was in the agreement that ended it.
@@TheMrPeteChannel At different times they have been stationed outside the US. If I understand correctly there is a unit stationed for extended drills in England right now.
I definitely consider this a perfect film. Stanley Kubrick made a comedy about nuclear war during a time of hightened tensions between the u.s. and the Soviet union.
You might want to watch `To Be or Not to Be`, a brilliant satirical movie made in 1942 that is mocking Hitler and the nazis at a time when in the real world Germany pretty much still had the upper hand in the war. That was ballsy.
Strangelove himself is only in the film for a bit, but his spirit fills the whole movie. He is the embodiment of nuclear strategy and cold-war thinking.
watching this I realized the cowboy on the bomber is the head henchman who reports to Heady Lamar's character in Blazing Saddles. Strangelove's line, "So much time and little to do." I wonder if Gene Wilder's line from Willy Wonka was a nod to that.
My favourite line in this movie is when George C. Scott is talking, oh so casually, about the "acceptable" civilian causalities of nuclear war. You included the end of that speech in the video edit, but for those who have not seen this film (and you really should . . . it has attained a new kind of resonance, sadly, in the world we live in today) . . . here is the whole line: Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops! Uh, depending on the breaks.
Oh yeah, the creators of Fallout absolutely drew inspiration from the end of this film. Even the old-timey retro music vibes that permeat the series. :)
Fallout was a satire of "What if the 50's future promised us was real.." So, flying cars, nuclear powered everything, a robot in every home and Reds under the bed. And we all were kept toast warm under our asbestos blankets, (cough, cough). Sort of came from the same place but not really, as this movie was more based in reality. There was a doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction, and the US had bombers flying 24/7, ready to retaliate in case of a surprise attack by the Russians.
I'm so glad you kids appreciated this movie! It's so much indicative of the hysteria of the Cold War, not just the Cuban Missile Crisis but the insanity of the entire decades of non-conflict. If you want a more factual but still entertaining exploration, I'd suggest "Atomic Cafe," cobbled together from footage of the time.
my favourite part is the bomber crew, the actors, their scenario, the music, all they go through... in any other movie, you were meant to cheer for them, they are the everymen, doing whatever they need to, facing down the odds and sacrificing everything to complete the mission (they even lose control and have to struggle right to the end to complete the mission)...you want to cheer them to succeed and you feel it while watching the movie (even though if they do succeed, it's the end of the world)
A work of absolute genius! Equal parts hilarious, and, darkly terrifying. As someone who grew up in the Reagan era, at the end of the Cold War, who used to lie awake nights wondering when the bombs were gonna fall, this movie still strikes a chord.
The United States was never close to war with the USSR when Reagan was in office. The USSR was in no shape to remotely be able to go to war at that time and collapsed due to Reagan's constant pressure and their own internal turmoil and bankrupted economy. The Reagan years were the safest and strongest (both militarily and economically) that the USA has ever experienced.
I had a bad dream once involving a mushroom cloud in the distance, turning to run, and suddenly feeling every cell in my body begin to vibrate before I woke up.
A very interesting thing occurred in the movie When Slim Pickens is reading off the contents of the survival kit he says that you could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas. However he actually says if you look at his mouth a good weekend in Dallas. But the reason they dubbed that out is this movie came out just after John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas so they changed it by dubbing in Vegas to avoid any kind of controversy!! Also I was wondering if you noticed that the "British soldier" locked in with the crazy American General the "President" and "Dr Strangelove" are all three one in the same actors Peter sellers!
"Strangelove" was a box office and critical success complete with Oscar nominations. "Fail-Safe" which came out a year later is the straight dramatic version of this tale. Despite the fact it's a very good film, it didn't do as well at the box office. Fascinating story behind the making of the two films.
Both Russia and the US were building large underground shelters prior to this movie, and private bomb shelters were often added to middle class houses during that era. Even beyond the Cuban Missile Crisis the fear and threat of nuclear war was ever present - I remember it as a kid in the 80’s, and all the songs and media dealing with nuclear paranoia. Something like Dr. Strangelove was both terrifying and a cathartic release of that anxiety in laughter.
6:36 What I think I remember hearing was: This was, originally, being written as a serious movie. But, after learning all that a civilian could learn, about nuclear war, at the time, they decided to write it as a comedy. Because, otherwise, it would have been just too “heavy” a movie.
"they decided to write it as a comedy. Because, otherwise, it would have been just too “heavy” a movie." That makes sense. Reminds me of that movie Tombstone when they staring at each other and Doc winks and boy got jumpy and went for it. M.A.D. is just a big Mexican stand off between countries with everyone else standing around to close and some bringing a knife to a gun fight. Last guy who threw down their knife we killed so disarming anyone else ain't gonna happen anytime soon.
Kubrick went to see a play with George C Scott before casting him. The play was Othello with James Earl Jones in the title role. Kubrick hired both and gave Jones more lines than his character originally had. When Slim Pickens was cast, the British crew was amazed at how in character he was, Pickens wasn't acting, it was just his normal accent and behaviors.
Nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Picture but lost to My Fair Lady, which took home 8. It's still the funniest cold war comedy thrillers ever made and it still holds 100% on RT
As weird as it may seem, Strangelove's arm acting on its own is based on a real condition called "Alien hand syndrome". Usually occurring it people with certain types of brain damage the limb acts completely independently of conscious will of the subject, sometimes falling back on muscle memory.
Another movie in this vein, but much more serious is called By Dawns Early Light, which also actually has James Earl Jones in a supporting role. Something you might want to check out!
I love how at the end when they are discussing the mine shaft project, they are talking about something that would take most likely months, and perhaps even years, to fully implement. Fascinated by the idea of new and exciting sexual possibilities, they are completely oblivious to the fact that they literally have only minutes to live.
I think they say earlier that the soviet doomsday machine doesn't activate itself right away. There may be indeed time for them to do this, which would also explain why the ambassador finds it necessary to take secret photos.
Fun fact: Kubrick played George C. Scott kind of dirty. He told him to act the character over the top for the rehearsals (all the while taping them) and had his act the actual shot more subdued. So depending on how the movie flowed he would make his pick. Kubrick went with the rehearsal takes since they fit more with the over-the-top nature of the movie.
The explosions at the end of the movie are from above-ground nuclear test footage that occurred from 1946 to 1963. In the early 60s, lots of people just assumed they would die in an all-out nuclear war. There were people who sort of had a carpe diem philosophy because they weren't sure they would have a future. And I think this movie was a warning about how badly things could go wrong. Another movie in the same vein is Fail Safe.
Probably already noted: the super secret communication device and the huge amplifier in "Back to the Future" are both called "CRM-114". A bit of an homage, like "1138" always cropping up in Star Wars after Lucas' early film "THX-1138".
It breaks my heart to have heard so many people not willing to watch black-and-white movies because "colored ones are newer and as such better". (And the same with practical effects vs. CGI.) Dr Strangelove is a phenomenal movie.
Pretty much all the great movie of today stand on the shoulders of the great movies that were made in the golden era of film making (many of them black and white). When you watch current movies without knowing the body of movie classics that came before, you miss many of the "Easter egg" homage scenes that current film makers place in their movies, and also miss the references to ideas first raised in earlier movies (i.e. the intertextuality). Frankly, a great many of the old films have really excellent stories and acting because they had to, they couldn't rely on distracting the audience with spectacular computer generated special effects, so the story and the characters had to be strong to carry the movie on their own. There is a lot of really good stuff to be found in older B&W films, and a good place to start is AFI's list of 100 films from the first 100 years of film making.
There are also people who think old comedies can't be funny. The Marx Brothers movies are a few years shy of being 100, and they're STILL funny. Except maybe The Big Store, but it wasn't considered that great back then either.😁
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 Yes! And after seeing some of those (Duck Soup etc.) Sean Connery's line "I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers" in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (a movie I had seen years earlier) became probably my favorite one in that movie. (As a kid I had seen Groucho Marx being shown in stuff like the Looney Tunes but didn't get the references back then.)
more fun facts: the band Megadeath got the idea for their band name from this movie. also, apparently Ronald Regan asked to be taken to "the War Room" once he was sworn in as president, and was disappointed to find out it wasn't real. bonus fun fact: "peace is our profession" was the actual slogan of the military when this movie was made, and the way Kubrick beat you over the head with it in this movie meant they changed that slogan shortly thereafter, lol
The big board is real or at least was still real back in the mid 60s and was fed in part by the DEW line stations in Canada. No idea how much of that system is used now with satellite monitoring systems watching for launches now.
War rooms existed. But they didn't look like this movie. After this movie, everyone had this in mind when they put together a war room.... and thus realty began to resemble the fiction.
I love the subtle details of Burpleton AFB in this movie, especially the "Poised for Peace" emblem at the gate. This combined with the fact it's a B-52 nuke base leads me to believe that Burpleton is supposed to be the fictional version of Minot AFB in real life. This movie is also supposed to be adapted from the book "Red Alert" which was a much more serious cold war drama. Except Stanley Kubrick had the amazing idea to make the movie a comedy with satire and innuendos. This was ment to show the world how devastating a nuclear war would be, but the comedy was ment to disarm them mentally so the movie wouldn't cause a panic. This was much needed since tensions were so high between the USA and Soviet Union.
Presumably George meant the Cuban missile crisis, not the Bay of pigs invasion. As a note, the pilot who rode the bomb(the actor Slim Pickens) was also in Blazing Saddles, with a similar accent/style of speech. He was an actual cowboy/rodeo rider/rodeo clown prior to becoming an actor. "Dear John" on one bomb, which apparently he was meant to ride down if not for a mistake, was the name of his favourite horse. His stage name reportedly stemmed from "..went to compete in a rodeo, and was told by the doubtful rodeo manager that there would be "slim pickin's" (i.e. little chance of any prize money) for him"
The bomber pilot is played by Slim Pickens, who was Hedley Lamarr's right hand man in "Blazing Saddles". 'We come into town, a whompin' and a whoopin'...."
I'm pretty sure that Dr. Strangelove the character was supposed to represent the influence of Wernher von Braun who was a major contributor to the United States developing rockets of various types. All those main characters represent the other major countries and how they collectively almost broke the planet! Peter Sellers is amazing and you should watch all his work and the movie about his life!
Yes, Von Braun collaborated with the Nazi's and built the V2 rockets that bombed London, and for his crimes he went to the US to start a new, well paid life.
By "influence" I assume you mean Von Braun was a Nazi, and Kubrick was pretty sure that in this sort of instance, he'd start implementing some of the old ways into our nuclear survival plans?
This was the first feature role for James Earl Jones. He was the first black actor to have his names in the opening credits and this film featured him both prominently and equally to the white actors. James got the role because he had the best voice and I heard that they liked his voice so much that they gave him more things to say. fun fact: the war room, with *the big board* inspired the construction of the actual war room and *it's* big board!
Can't speak for America, but for Australians, it was freaking hilarious ... and at that time, really scary ... at the same time, the very serious Fail Safe and The Bedford Incident were released with basically the same plot. Peter Sellers played Strangelove, Group Captain Mandrake and President Merkin Muffley.
Peter Sellers usually gets most of the credit for his multiple performances in this movie and rightfully so, he is terrific but George C Scott is brilliant and so funny. He's my favorite character.
The pilot was Slim Pickins, you saw him in Blazing Saddles. There are some huge stars from the time in this movie. Peter Sellers plays 3 parts, the Captain, the President and Dr. Strangelove.
The strange love is not just the doctor, but is also our strange love war. At the start of the movie notice the war planes make love to each other with a love song playing in the background.
Pablo Ferro designed the titles for both Dr Strangelove and Men In Black!!! The man is legend as a title designer. That's his handwriting, in both cases. Can you find the typo in the intro credits?
sterling hayden was indeed the police captain in the godfather. he's kind of the unsung hero of this movie because he's essentially parodying the cigar-chomping tough guy noir/western/war characters he played in the 40s and 50s. great actor, kept on working into the 80s, but unfortunately there was always a stain on his rep because he named names during the HUAC anti-communist trials in the 50s. (something he was haunted by and expressed much regret for.) paul thomas anderson had expressed an interest in doing a movie about the HUAC hearings with a hayden-like figure at the center, much like he took inspiration from l. ron hubbard for the master.
I always felt like Ripper was Hayden's atoment for naming names. Playing this absolutely guano-brained, John Birch-iest John Birch right winger hawk you ever saw, who throws the world into nuclear war because he was flaccid and tired.
The closing song called We'll Meet Again was performed by British singer Vera Lynn. It was released in 1939. The song United the British citizens. She became Dame Vera in 1975.
Couple points from someone from the time. These have probably been brought up before. Film was supposed to premiere Nov 1963, awkward. Cuban missile crisis was Oct 1962 another awkward moment. Movie was pure genius. Edit: CRM114 is referenced in all Kubrick movies. Thanks
I was 10 years old when I went with my parents to see this movie. I don’t remember my reaction to the film, but it was a terrifying time. We had nuclear bomb drills in school (cover your eyes, don’t touch the lockers because they may get hot(!)), once a month air raid sirens would go off in the city as a test and periodically all the television stations would suddenly interrupt regular programming and broadcast test patterns with a message that the Emergency Broadcast System was being tested. Some buildings had signs indicating they had bomb shelters inside. The US had airborne bombers flying 24/7 with nuclear bombs onboard. It’s against this backdrop that Kubrick made this film.
Kids these days don't realise that you can survive a nuclear attack with a few cans of beans and a saucepan of water, if you take your kitchen door off and lean it against the wall.
I saw the movie in the 1960's. At that time, short, Avant-garde, Black and White, movies like this were the rage on college campuses. I think for that reason, the movie was considered, somewhat, NOT "in the main stream". But like most things, the genius of this production, was eventually recognized and hence its popularity turned to what it is today.
The movie"Fail Safe" is the dramatic version of this movie, played by Henry Founda as the president. A very good movie. Also "Seven days in May" would be a good movie to watch.
Sellers did some of the best improv in the history of comedy in this film: The entire phone call with the Russian President, Dr. Strangelove's evil hand, even Dr. Strangelove standing up from his wheelchair and ending the movie with the now famous line "Mein Furer I can walk!" ALL IMPROV. Incredible stuff.
George C Scott 's comedic performance is amazing in this, for a serious actor he was so good. Also, it's called Dr. Strangelove because his name is fricking Dr. Strangelove, what else would you call it?
Scott hated the takes where he was so comedic. Kubrick wanted it funny so, as I recall reading, he allowed Scott to do a serious take then do the funny take.
One of the best parts of Strangelove's closing monologue is watching the face of the actor playing the Russian Ambassador, he's (understandably) about 5 seconds from losing it and corpsing
On nylon stockings: they were very precious behind the Iron Curtain. When my mother went to the USSR in the 1970s, she took nylon stockings and Playboy magazines to barter for rubles, since this was better than going through the official exchange rate shops when the ruble was overvalued.
Notice how the leaders are all insane and incompetent, while the rank and file are generally sane and competent. The leadership are not worthy of those they lead.
There was a lot of anti-Nuke sentiment among people who were tired of living under the constant threat of nuclear war. Originally, Dr Strangelove wasn’t planned to be a comedy, but when Fail Safe came out they had to redirect their plans. So there was this odd dual treatment of virtually the same story where one film treated the topic dead seriously and the other as a dark comedy. Both are great movies.
The inspiration for this is a very heavy drama with a similar story line called Fail-Safe with Henry Fonda, a great movie in its own right, but Dr. Strangelove is the one people still watch.
Dr Strangelove is all over this movie, not just in a couple of scenes. The character is humanity in microcosm, forever struggling to simultaneously destroy and save itself.
