Kubrick's darkly humorous classic

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2008)

Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Number 1 - 1964
Top 15 - 1960s
Released amidst the height of the space and technological race, between the USA and the USSR, perhaps the peak of the mutual nuclear terror that was the 'Cold War', and a 36 year old director named Stanley Kubrick manages to encompass the whole subject and satirise the hell out of it. 'Dr Strangelove' must not only be approached as an ingenious, innovative comedy, but also as a frighteningly alarming montage of the almost unlimited power possessed by our governments. Strangelove is no less relevant today than it was 40 years ago.
When an insane general starts a process of nuclear extermination against Russia, his manic executive officer Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tries to persuade him otherwise. The news spread quickly and the government's top officials meet in the War Room in the Pentagon, where the president Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) is enraged at the possibility of a nuclear holocaust occurring within minutes and without his permission. A supporter of 'Plan R' is General Buck Turgidson, played by the superb George C. Scott, who exercises his facial muscles very much like Jim Carrey without seeming outrageous. The other character is of course Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) an ex Nazi government scientist who has an idea of building of post-apocalyptic society with '1 man to every 10 women'.
Kubrick's masterpiece is undoubtedly one of the most sarcastic, intelligently written films of all time. The script is sheer genius. Based on Peter George's Cold War thriller 'Red Alert', a serious and frightening novel, the adaptation became as Kubrick himself described 'a nightmare comedy'.
Peter Sellers is without a doubt astonishing and so is George C. Scott in a masterful comedic performance that is equally admirable as that of Sellers.
The film is filled with sexual innuendo, from its characters' names (Strangelove, Jack D. Ripper) to smart undertones present so frequently, you can probably spot more each time you watch the film.
Sexuality is a main theme in Strangelove (look at extract below)
From the opening scene of the B-52 "mating" in flight with the KC-135 Tanker (set to an instrumental version of "Try a Little Tenderness") to General Ripper's sexual frustration being at the root of the eventual apocalypse, sexual references are apparent throughout the film.
The character of Dr. Strangelove is laced with innuendo, even aside from his suggestive name. He is the character responsible for creating fantasies of a polygamous post-apocalyptic society with a ratio of "ten females to each male", suggesting Nazi efforts like the Lebensborn project. This raises the possibility that the subtitle of the film refers to Dr. Strangelove as the "I" who learned to "love the bomb"  because the mutual destruction of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would make way for the return of the Nazis.
General Jack D. Ripper is named after Jack the Ripper, the infamous serial killer who murdered prostitutes in London in the late 1880s. General Ripper's primary concern about Communism is his assertion that water fluoridation is "a Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids," of which he was made aware when his "loss of essence" during sexual intercourse greatly fatigued him. He continues to explain that women "seek the life essence" and then states, "I do not avoid women...but I do deny them my essence". Here, "essence" is used as a synonym or euphemism for "semen".
Many characters' names involve sexual wordplay. Group Captain Lionel Mandrake's last name refers to the Mandrake plant, which has mythical fertility properties. The Soviet Ambassador Alexei de Sadesky is named for the Marquis de Sade, and Premier Dmitri Kisov's last name is pronounced "Kissoff"; literally a pun on "kiss off". Major "King" Kong rides a phallic-looking H-bomb, which explodes as he approaches the "target of opportunity", Laputa (in Spanish: la puta means "the whore"). President Merkin Muffley's first and last name each crudely imply that he is a pussy by nature, since a "merkin" is a female pubic wig used mainly by prostitutes in the 18th century, and 'muff' (pubic hair) refers to the area where the wig is applied. The name of General Buck Turgidson is derived from turgid, a biological term meaning full of fluid to the point of hardness, as in an erection, applied to "buck" as an explicit symbol of virility.
Colonel "Bat" Guano's name literally means "bat-feces", whereas scatological and sexual humour are often combined. The term 'bat-shit' is also a slang word for insanity. Although sent to arrest General Ripper, Colonel Guano turns out to be another Anticommunist who feels the Communist threat as sexual, namely "preversion".
There is only one woman in the entire film; General Turgidson's secretary. She appears not in an office, but in a small bedroom with twin beds and a sun lamp, wearing a bikini swimsuit. The General, when he appears from the bathroom, also wears bathing trunks. Although she tells a caller that she and the General are completing paperwork, the clear implication is that they have a sexual relationship. In fact, in a later phone call, Turgidson tells her that he does not love her only for her sexual favours, and that he intends to make her his wife.
This apocalyptic, darkly humorous cult film come highly recommended to anyone with a little wit and appreciation towards the medium of film
8/10