Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

1964

1h 35m

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

5.7K

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Comedy

War

After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop the nuclear strike.

Directors

Stanley Kubrick

Writers

Stanley Kubrick(screenplay by)

Terry Southern(screenplay by)

Peter George(screenplay by)

Stars

Peter Sellers

George C. Scott

Sterling Hayden

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Top cast

Peter Sellers

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake …

George C. Scott

General "Buck" Turgidson

Sterling Hayden

Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper

Keenan Wynn

Colonel Bat Guano

Slim Pickens

Major "King" Kong

Peter Bull

Botschafter De Sadesky

Lt. Lothar Zogg

Miss Scott

Mr. Staines

Lt. Dietrich

Adm. Randolph

Lt. Kivel

Frank

Capt. 'Ace' Owens

Burpelson AFB Defense Team Member

Paul Tamarin

Lt. Goldberg

Laurence Herder

Burpelson AFB Defense Team Member

John McCarthy

Burpelson AFB Defense Team Member

Directors

Stanley Kubrick

Writers

Stanley Kubrick(screenplay by)

Terry Southern(screenplay by)

Peter George(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film <i>Dr. Strangelove</i> is a hilarious film about the nuclear annihilation of the human race. Its plot combines three strands that lead inevitably to this doomsday. In the first, an Air Force base commander (Sterling Hayden) goes insane and launches the go-code for his B52s to drop the bomb on their targets in Russia, while a British captain on an officer exchange program (Peter Sellers) tries to reason with him. In the second strand, we see the crew of a B52 commanded by the cowboyish Major Kong (Slim Pickens) as they prepare to drop the bomb. Finally, there are the scenes from the Pentagon war room, where the American president (again Peter Sellers) harangues a general (George C. Scott) about how this could have happened, until the mysterious German scientist Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers yet again) offers a solution. Originally meant to be a straightforward adaptation of a political thriller novel, <i>Dr. Strangelove</i> became a madcap comedy. The characters' sexual quirks, anti-Communist hysteria and nonchalance about the coming apocalypse and are exaggerated to the point of farce. No other Peter Sellers film shows off his range of talents so well: he segues effortlessly between Captain Mandrake, a nervous fellow with a British accident already antiquated at the time the film was made, the staid American politician President Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Strangelove, one of the Nazi scientists that the USA brought over after World War II. Filmgoers must have perceived this film somewhat differently, when the threat of nuclear annihilation felt very real. Contemporary audiences won't fully get how black this black comedy is. Nonetheless, this film remains perennially funny, and even after numerous viewings over the last 15 years or so I still laugh every time.

CRCulver08 Sep, 2018