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Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, and James Earl Jones; Director:: Stanley Cubrick; novel: Peter George.
While I was attending school at BYU-Provo, a boy told me that this this movie was his favorite. When I asked him what the plot was, he quickly told me that Dr. Strangelove was a romantic comedy, similar to Money Can't Buy Me Love. Of course, being the naive trusting girl I was, I believed this analysis. Now, I can see how I was being played a fool!
It took me a while to warm up to this movie, but now I find it to be funny. Scheduled to be released in late November of 1963, Stanley by Cubrick respectfully decided that it would be better to wait a few months before releasing a movie spoofing a blundering President and his silly administration. After all, President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated, and it would not be appropriate to make fun of the President's handling of the Cuban missoile crisis. Peter Sellers is a genius as he plays three different important people in this political satire. Captain Mandrake is the goofy hero. President Merkin Muffley's telephone conversation with " Russian Ambassador tickles my funny bone every time. And finally, the psychotic Nazi Dr. Strangelove is a wheelchair-bound lunatic, and Sellers has a different voice and personality for each character.Sellers received a much-deserved Academy Award nomination for his split personality.
Gen. Turgidson is played by George C. Scott, and the idiotic way he obsesses about showing the Russians the big screen in the war room is side-splitting. When Ronald Reagan became President, and was given the tour of the White House, he questioned where the big screen was kept. We cannot forget the villain, Gen. Jack D. Ripper played by Sterling Hayden. His lunacy perfectly parodies those paranoid Americans who cannot stop thinking about the bomb, and have put their lives on hold for fear of nuclear war. Lastly, James Earl Jones plays Dr. Luthar Zogg in his first major motion picture.
I will close this review with my favorite quote from General Jack D. Ripper:
He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow as that Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and to international Communist conspiracy and to impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Absolutely hilarious! Great movie! :-)
