Dr. Strangelove or: How I learnt to stop worrying and Love the Bomb(1964)

Dr Strange love is Political Satirical Black comedy written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The plot of the film is about a nuclear disaster that breaks between the US and the USSR in the Cold War period. A very unique subject to do a black comedy. The other important aspect of the film is of the cast - Peter Sellers who does multiple roles in the film.

Cast: Peter Sellers, George Scott,Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn & Slim Pickens

Plot and Summary:

General Jack. D. Ripper( played by George Scott) is the commander of the Burpelson Airforce base, which houses Nuclear weapons launch facility,  He calls one of his flights 834th Regiment and asks to execute a Rank - R mission, Nuclear attack on the Soviets. he gives the Go-Codes and seals the base as well. We latter learn the general Ripper has gone nuts. The remaining of the film is how the two super powers USA and USSR handle this situation and does the Bomb goes off at the end or not?

General Turgidson(played by George Scott) is the secretary of defense of the US, His character is the comic in the film, he is a typical American general, a deep hatred towards the soviets, a little psychotic and a lover of power and the war. There is a lot of conversation between the president and the general where he is very happy to explain the attack on the sovients even though it was not called for. A classic example is when the Russian premier explains the devastation of a doomsday machine,general Turgidson says " I would have been great if we had one of those doomsday machine"

Most of the film takes place in the War room, the conversations between the american president(played by Peter Sellers) and the Russian president kissof. At the end of the conversation it us understood that a global nuclear catastrophe is inevitable, the reason the Russian ambassador gives is  mist comic. He says that it was impossible to cope up with the race of war gap, peace gap and they did not want to have a doomsday gap.

While General Jack Ripper is trying to fight the invading the army into his regiment, his cheif officer Lionel Mandrake(again played by Peter Sellers) tries to talk sense into him to give the retrieval codes to the pentagon. Jack Ripper again a typical nutjob, he continuously talks about loosing bodily fluids to the communists. Director Stanley Kubrick tries to tell though this film a typical situation in any corporate or government organization(I don't know if these were his intentions, but in many cases situations end up the way told in the film)

The film was released in 1964. The post cold war period between the US and the USSR , what we would expect is high level tension between the two super powers, but Stanley breaks the tension by instilling jovial conversations between the two great leaders. President mirkoff( again played by Peter Sellers) tries to explain the situation of "the Bomb" to the drunk Russian president Dimitri Kissof, it is as though both of them are next door neighbors. 

The film also explains in detail who an army jet tries to approach a target and bombs it. The captain "King Kong" though initially skeptical about the mission at the end executes it. At the time of its release Dr Strange love was one of the firsts to explain about the nuclear Bombings. At the end of the mission Captain Kong gets struck on top of the Bomb and he rides it like a cowboy on a horse when it drops.

The main discussions in the film begins when everyone learns that the doomsday machine is going to go off and Dr Strangelove is called. He (again played by Peter Sellers) is a Nazi Nuclear scientist who has moved to the US. He explains a possible solution by inhabiting the deep mineshats where there is.no radiation.penetration and human life could sustain by nuclear reactors and green house. His past in the Nazi German can be easily seen by his alien hand disease and when he addresses the president as mein fuhrer by mistake. A truly noteworthy performance by peter seller.

After the doctor's proposal, the general Turgidson turns to president and tell a him that all the mineshafts needs to be protected against the sovient invasion. He finally adds there should not be any mindshaft gap! The Russian ambassador takes photographs of the war room secretly.The film ends with multiple images of the bomb explosion with a song in the background , signifying the beauty of the bomb..( that's what I could infer from the last scene).

Verdict:

Stanley Kubrick is considered one of the iconic directors of all times, most of his films have a unstandard storytelling with multiple meaning for each scenes much of it is still not understood. Dr Strangelove was one of his early ones which doesn't belong to this category though there are some portions which ate quite complex. Its a serious comedy, meaning no one would want to do a comedy on such a subject.

Peter Sellers does three completely different roles and it's very difficult to judge he has done three roles unless we actually know the cast. 

In the end the film when all the global leaders discuss on rebuilding a new world, the name of the film gets its actual meaning and kubricks real intentions lies in the last 30 mins of the film.I don't think anyone would ever attempt such a subject ever again. Its one of a kind.