The Greatest Comedy Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2007)

Dr. Strangelove came at a time when the Cold War came closest to turning hot. Both the United States and the USSR kept building more and more missiles in case of attack. Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a film pointing out the insanity of the Cold War. While adapting the novel Red Alert, he realized the best way to do so was to make a comedy out of it. Stanley drafted satirist Terry Southern to help turn the thriller into a black comedy. What resulted was the greatest piece of satire ever put to film.
As if Terry Southern wasn't enough, Kubrick managed to secure Peter Sellers, the most talented and versatile comedic actor since Charlie Chaplin and perhaps ever. Sellers played three roles (it would have been four if he hadn't broken his leg trying to play Major Kong): the RAF officer Lionel Mandrake, US President Merkin Muffley, and the mad German-born scientist Dr. Strangelove.
The film begins with General Jack D. Ripper (see if you can spot that joke), played by Sterling Hayden, sending the planes under his command to nuke their designated targets in Russia. He can do so thanks to a provision that allows officers to ordering nuclear bombings instead of relying on the president. Meanwhile the President meets with chiefs of staff in the War Room to countermand the order. The only general who really speaks is Air Force General Turgidson, played masterfully by George C. Scott. The only downside of having Peter Sellers in the movie is that Scott's work goes often unappreciated. His facial and body language is so animated, hilarious and perfect that I devoted three viewings to focusing on it.
The film adds a third setting: one of the bombers sent into Russia. The captain of the plane is Major Kong, portrayed by Slim Pickens, who filled in when Sellers couldn't pull it off. To my knowledge Kubrick never told Slim it was a comedy, so he plays the straightest role in the film. The film constantly switches from the plane, the War Room, and Ripper's base, which is under fire from US troops trying to arrest Ripper.
While the film has only a few quotable lines (chief of which being "You can't fight in here, this is the War Room), every scene has something, either spoken or visual, that gets laughs. As Us troops fire upon fellow soldiers at Ripper's base, a giant sign that say "Peace Is Our Profession" stands behind the action. When the president brings the Russian ambassador into the War Room early on, it sparks many gems (including the aforementioned quote). He also sets up the phone conversation between the president and the premier of Russia, which is one of the funniest phone calls ever put to film. Taken out of context, none of it is amusing, yet when presented against the backdrop of the threat of nuclear holocaust, the trivialities and pleasantries are hysterical.
While Mandrake and the president have more lines, the best character Sellers portrays is Dr. Strangelove, a former Nazi scientist who has since become an American citizen and a weapons researcher for the US. Sellers' mannerisms and inflections will have you gasping for air.
Dr. Strangelove does retain the thriller aspect of the film's original intent. However, as the comedy darkens one can predict the outcome of the film. People call this Kubrick's only comedy, but I think that's not true. Stanley applied this kind of dark, vicious humor to nearly every film he made after that. Full Metal Jacket is loaded with it. A Clockwork Orange in a sense is a dark comedy, only one that deals with crime, punishment, and the government's symbiotic and mutually parasitic relationship with the media. Dr. Strangelove remains his pure comedy, though, and like all Kubrick films, pushed the genre it was made in to new heights. This was my first Kubrick film and I immediately became a fanboy after it. This remains my second favorite film behind Apocalypse Now. It's still just as relevant today as it was back then, and it's also just as funny.