No Fighting In The War Room!

Director Stanley Kubrick's 1964 movie's titles - both of them - give viewers a vague idea of what to expect from the film. Dr. Strangelove, in that the film is very strange indeed. The subtitle, "How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" indicates that "The Bomb" will be involved, but is misleading; the last thing people who have seen this movie will do is stop worrying about those in charge of the world's nuclear weapons. A very dark satire of the Cold War and the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, this movie manages to be both incredibly funny and rather disturbing.

The film's story takes place some time after World War II, in the late '50's or '60's. A U.S. General, Jack D. Ripper, goes insane while on his military base. He fears a Communist plot by the Russians to destroy the U.S. and all that is good and decent by taking away our "precious bodily fluids". He orders a fleet of U.S. B-52 bombers, armed with nuclear bombs, to proceed with top secret "Plan R", which, among other things, instructs the bombers to ignore any attempts to cancel the order without the right access codes, and drop the bombs on the Soviet Union targets. Ripper, the only one who knows the access codes, then orders his troops to seal off his army base, and to shoot at anything that approaches - American bodily fluids are at stake. The bombers commence carrying out their orders. Meanwhile, General Buck Turgidson, becomes aware of the happenings, and has to explain the situation to the President and military leaders in the Pentagon. The bombers can't be called off, he explains. President Merkin Muffley calls the Soviet Union and finds out that they've built a weapon that will destroy all life on the planet if the U.S. attacks the USSR - and there's no stopping it. Fortunately, a Captain Mandrake at Ripper's base, manages to get the access codes for Plan R, and call off 30 of the 34 B-52s. The Russians shoot down another 3, but one plane called "The Leper Colony", survives a Russian attack. In the face of certain destruction, the leaders in the Pentagon consult with Dr. Strangelove to formulate a plan to survive the doomsday fallout - and repopulate the earth - in the nation's mine shafts, but the Leper Colony reaches its target, and Major T.J. Kong rides the bomb down to the ground. The doomsday machine engages, and the world goes up in a mushroom cloud of smoke.

A summary of the plot comes off as very sober - nuclear death usually isn't the subject of most comedies, but Dr. Strangelove is all about comic relief. The most serious moments are also the funniest in the movie. General Turgidson, in defending Plan R to the President, decides that the best way to respond to the breakdown in communications would be to go ahead with destroying the USSR before they can retaliate. He's optimistic of the possible outcome of such a plan, explaining enthusiastically, "I'm not saying we won't get our hair mussed up, but 10, 20 million tops, depending on the breaks!" in regard to American casualties. When calling up the Russian Premier ("Comrade Kissoff") to inform him of the impending disaster, President Muffley is very courteous, making smalltalk and hoping not to offend the Premier. The viewer only hears Muffley's end of the conversation, including "...I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are. ... So we're both sorry, all right?! ... All right." When Captain Mandrake discovers General Jack D. Ripper's access code ("Purity of Essence"), he attempts to call the President on a pay phone to inform him, but the operator won't make a person-to-person call for him, since he's 20 cents short. Mandrake asks to make it a collect call, but the President refuses the charges. Mandrake finally gets a soldier to shoot a soda machine to get some change, under the threat of "answering to the Coca Cola Company". The Cold War defense policy of "Mutually Assured Destruction"is parodied hilariously when Dr. Strangelove explains the whole point of the doomsday device is to let the enemy know, so they won't attack for fear of being eliminated. Unfortunately, the Soviets weren't set to announce the project until the next Monday - Stalin apparently "loves surpirses". In the end, the crippled Dr. Strangelove, in his thick German accent, is explaining the "10 females to one male" ratio of the mineshaft-fallout-shelters, to an anxious audience, gets to his feet eagerly as the President and General Tugidson discuss the importance of not allowing the Commies to take any lead in world affairs. "There must not be a mineshaft gap!" they exclaim, shortly before the world is destroyed to the song "We'll Meet Again" as the credits roll.

The cheery apocalypse scene, along with the rest of the movie, is completely in black and white, despite color technology available at the time. The special effects are, of course, rudimentary in comparison to today's computer rendered scenes, a lot of the shots of the airplanes are clearly toy models, but they get the point of the scenes across anyway, and add to the humor. It's interesting to see the depiction of technology of that period - the maps of the targets and bombers in the Pentagon War Room are indicated with small trails of blinking lights, and the B-52 pilots figure out their position and direction by with trigonometry by hand, on paper. Dr. Strangelove tells the President and the U.S. leaders that a huge computer system could make short work of figuring out who gets to go into the mineshafts, explaining that how all the names and criteria for survival would be loaded onto a "drum of tape" of computer memory. Today's desktop computers could easily complete that task. There is use of filming techniques to indicate status and importance of characters and scenes, as in most modern movies. During General Ripper's darkly serious explanation of the Communist plot to fluoridate the U.S. water supply, the camera looks up at him from a low angle; his face fills the screen for the whole monologue. As he talks through his cigar, the viewer realizes that he is truly crazy.

The same could be said of the U.S. and Soviet leaders in the movie and in real life. During the Cold War, the U.S. and USSR were in deep competition in every conceivable area - there was a space race, Olympic hockey race, chess champion race, and most importantly the arms race. Throughout the whole movie, the characters decry anything suspicious as a "Commie" plot, and the Soviet Ambassador and Premier are convinced that they are being deceived. Dr. Strangelove pokes fun at the arms race, but the Cuban Missile Crisis shows how close to nuclear war the two superpowers really were. In the movie, the Soviet Union and U.S. both had doomsday programs, not unlike the "Mutual Assured Destruction" programs in real life. Fortunately, the Cold War ended without major incident, but what if a major world leader becomes convinced of a sinister plot to steal precious bodily fluids? We may all have to stake out a mineshaft.