"Peace is Our Profession."

Rating: 10/10 (22 February 2008)

Dr. Strangelove is widely considered to be one of Stanley Kubrick's best films, if not THE best, and it's easy to see why. I remember watching it several years ago and not really getting into it, but as I rewatched it a couple nights ago I realized quickly what I had missed back then. It is a remarkably simple film, an actor's film, obviously, but the crackling dialogue and the stunning performances (most notably from Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, of course), are what really make the movie work so well.
That is, of course, a pretty powerful statement, to give so much credit to the actors, since the story itself is a compellingly realistic and plausible what-if tale that was released to the public in an atmosphere of frightening tension between the U.S. and Russia. So realistic, in fact, that they felt it necessary to including a disclaimer at the beginning of the film, in which the Air Force would like to assure the public that it has systems in place which would prevent such a thing from ever happening.
The film begins with something that was news to me, that America kept a given number of B-52 bombers airborne 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the event that their destructive services might be suddenly needed, which itself is a sign of what the times were like back then.
The story concerns a General who loses his mind and orders all airborne bombers to attack Russia, unprovoked. The men on board the planes are dumbstruck, of course, because they realize the meaning of this order. A brilliant Slim Pickens is in charge on board one of the planes, and there is a rumor that during the performance, he wasn't told that the film was a comedy, which may be one of the reasons his comic performance is so brilliant, because this is exactly the kind of comedy that Kubrick loves and excels with. As Roger Ebert once noted, a man wearing a funny hat is not funny. But a man who doesn't KNOW he's wearing a funny hat...
I have three favorite interactions in the film. The first is the isolated interaction between the crazy general and one of Sellers' performances, Colonel Mandrake, who is stuck with the general and forced to listen with increasing agitation and disbelief to the general's explanations for why it is so imperative to strike the Russians immediately ("A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual!"). This is funny to me because I have a close friend who's wife is absolutely convinced that the American government is doing this to its own citizens right now as I write this, in early 2008. She should watch this film.
The second performance I love is Sellers' portrayal of Dr. Strangelove, although I'll admit that I remain a little confused as to why the film ended with his sudden exclamation that he can walk. I know there is something going on there that I'm missing but I just can't think of it. And last but not least, George C. Scott as the fanatical General Buck Turgidson. Scott's performance is so brilliant and in such deep detail that it's impossible to see it all in one viewing. I rewound all of his scenes two or three times and there is always something new. I think his might be the best performance in the movie.
Watch, of course, for a young James Earl Jones on board the airplane, and of course Pickens' exit from the airplane and the movie, which is one of the most famous moments in film history.
And of course, since in China I especially appreciated this - listen for Mandrake's hilarious comment about his experience being tortured by the Japanese! Only Peter Sellers could make something as real and disturbing as Japanese torture this funny!