A black comedy on a nuclear plot includes intelligent dialog , spectacular sets and sensational performances

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2014)

Classic black anti-war comedy with magnificent acting by all-star-cast , lavish production design by Ken Adam and masterfully realized by the always original Stanley Kubrick . It deals with an insane Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden was patterned after Gen. Thomas S. Power, LeMay's protégé and successor as Chief of the Strategic Air Command) triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop . There intervenes a motley group of offbeat characters such as a scientist (Peter Sellers was paid $1 million, 55% of the film's budget ,Stanley Kubrick famously quipped "I got three for the price of six") whose artificial arm repeatedly makes Heil Hitler sign as an involuntary reflex action , a hawkish general named Buck Turgidson (gunchewing militarist excellently performed by Geoge C Scott , this character was patterned after the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Curtis LeMay, who was renowned for his extreme anti-Communist views) and the US President Merklin Muffley (inimitable Peter Sellers , this role was patterned after Adlai Stevenson II, who lost two presidential elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower )to deal with consequences a nuclear attack .
This splendid film contains unforgettable scenes such as a soft drinking vending machine dispute , sketches involving a phone call to the American President and the movie's funniest the notorious Slim Pickens's wild ride on the bomb . Based on the novel "Red Alert" by Peter George, and originally conceived as a tense thriller about the possibility of accidental nuclear war. Stanley Kubrick was working on the script when he realized that many scenes he had written were actually quite funny , he then brought in Terry Southern to turn the story into a satire . This was the final collaboration between controversial Stanley Kubrick and his producing partner James B. Harris , as he left to begin his own directing career. Harris was involved in the early development stage of this production. It was during this stage that, according to Harris, Kubrick began to toy with the idea of turning it into a comedy .
Very good acting by Sterling Hayden as a crazed general initiating a nuclear attack on the Soviets and George C. Scott was reputedly annoyed that Stanley Kubrick was pushing him to overact for his role , while he vowed never to work with Kubrick again, Scott eventually saw this as one of his favorite performances and many fans consider it some of his best work on-screen . And of course, the great Peter Sellers who plays a tour-de-force triple role , as he improvised most of his lines . Sellers plays Dr. Strangelove , a wheelchair-bound adviser who apparently suffers from agonistic apraxia, also known as "alien hand syndrome¨ , an useless President and General Ripper's assistant . As Columbia Pictures agreed to provide financing only if Peter Sellers played at least four major roles , in their eyes, Sellers playing multiple roles was one reason Lolita (1962) was so successful. Peter Sellers was the first actor to be nominated for a single Academy award , best actor , for a film in which he portrayed three different characters in the same film . Furthermore , an awesome support cast with triumphant acting from Keenan Wynn as Col. 'Bat' Guano , Slim Pickens as Maj. 'King' Kong , Peter Bull as Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky , Tracy Reed as Miss Scott and film debut of James Earl Jones.
This was apparently one of the first films in which the US Air Force's new B-52 Stratofortress bomber was featured. It appeared in a number of films afterward, notably A Gathering of Eagles (1963), and By Dawn's Early Light (1990) and the first Bombers B 52 (1957) . In fact , in the early 1960s the B-52 was cutting-edge technology. Access to it was a matter of national security , the Pentagon refused to lend any support to the film after they read the script , as set designers reconstructed the B-52 bomber's cockpit from a single photograph that appeared in a British flying magazine. Atmospheric musical score by Laurie Johnson , including some classic songs . Brilliant Cinematography in white and black by Gilbert Taylor , being Stanley Kubrick's last black and white film. . The motion picture was stunningly directed by Stanley Kubrick , as research, he read nearly 50 books about nuclear war . This is probably the most famed picture -with the possibly exception of 2001 A space odyssey- of the relatively infrequent movies directed by this extraordinary filmmaker.