Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove

Stillman

Grant Stillman and Jack Richardson both had comments on Dr. Strangelove that caught my attention. Stillman talked a lot about where the substance of the film came from. He talked about how research was done that showed a link between the stars in Dr. Strangelove to before the script for the movie was thought up. An article in Time magazine in 1961 proves that Peter Sellers, Adiai Stevenson, and Henry Kissinger were linked to Russian espionage conspiracies. This goes back to Dr. Strangelove when the Russian ambassador states that the Russians were able to gain intelligence from the New York Times. In a quote from Foreign Affairs, Kissinger states many key concepts that appear throughout the movie such as when he says, “every country lives with the nightmare that even if it puts forth its best efforts its survival may be jeopardized by a technological breakthrough on the part of its opponent.” This statement relates to Dr. Strangelove talking about the possibility that something such as the doomsday machine really does exist and that the U.S. cannot do anything about it.

American President and the Russian Ambassador on the red phone with the Russian leader

Another example is when Kissinger wrote, “establishment of a communications system to enable the leaders of both countries to communicate instantaneously.” Relating this to the movie would be when the American President picks up the red phone in the war room and instantly is able to communicate with the Russian leader when one of the B-52s has been ordered to drop a nuclear bomb. Stillman also mentions the symbolism in Miss Scott’s appearance in the movie as well as the Playboy magazine read by Major Kong. Miss Scott appears as the only woman in the film and is more a sex symbol as she is the secretary who appears in scantily clad clothing for the time period.

Richardson

Jack Richardson’s review of Dr. Strangelove is a bit different than Stillman because he writes more on the satire that the film is. He mentions the opening scene “in which two bombers copulate in mid-air by means of a refueling tube while the song ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ plays.” The humor is related to the sex symbolism shown in war machines such as the B-52s. Another example that Richardson talks about is when Dr. Strangelove “fights a possessed right arm intent on offering Nazi salutes against its owner’s will.” This shows the attempt at humor that communism ideals may be present even within the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Cinematography

As Richardson mentions in his review, Kubrick was able to show “the heightening of a speech and performance by the choice of a dramatic camera angle.” One such example was the speech of Dr. Strangelove in the war room in which the camera looks straight on at him in the wheelchair as if we are seeing the war room from the American President’s point of view.

Dr. Strangelove's speech in the war room

Sound

I feel that the sound used in Dr. Strangelove is intriguing and by this I mean the use of song throughout the movie in the form of popular songs of the time at the beginning and end of the movie, as well as the song When Johnny Goes Marching Home when the pilots are in the B-52 that drops the bomb.

General Ripper and Officer Mandrake

Mise en scene

The mise en scène that I liked was the way the war room was set up. There were many major scenes that took place within the war room and having a setting that depicts possible reality is important in a movie such as this. There was General Turgidson explaining to the President that General Ripper had built in authority to drop a nuclear bomb without the President’s permission. Also, there was the important speech of Dr. Strangelove at the end of the movie explaining the only solution possible if the doomsday machine were to go off. The room was set up with dim lighting and views that showed the entire round table. It also showed the enormous amount of space that the room contained.

Dr. Strangelove in the war room