Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick; US, 1964)

Description

Believing that Commie-instigated water fluoridation has made him impotent, Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) launches a big SAC attack against the Soviet Union. Pretty soon President Muffley (Peter Sellers) is sitting around the war table with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a gaggle of gimcrack generals lead by "Buck" Turgidson (George C. Scott), fielding doomsday scenarios. Desperate, the prez turns to ex-Nazi physicist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers, again) who calculates that the gene pool can survive such a theoretical annihilation. Cold War camp, Dr. Strangelove's look, tightly designed sets illuminated with expressive pools of light, creates a militarized zone of otherworldliness, reifying the alienation of the high command. Kubrick's brilliant farce rejects our fear of a doomsday device—mechanical insurance that the bombs will be deployed—and instead views human snafus as the more probable terror. Adding satirist Terry Southern (Candy, The Loved One) to script deployment insured that the impact would be hilariously devastating. Whether it's Turgidson pridefully advocating restrained nuclear war, or Herr Doctor speculating about underground stud farms, the real threat orbits around a nucleus of unstable personalities. Dr. Strangelove asks, "Where are the safeguards against the militarized ego?"

• Written by Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, based on the novel Red Alert by George. Photographed by Gilbert Taylor. With Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens. (102 mins, B&W, 4K DCP, From Sony Pictures)

More Info

Link

http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN20844

Call

(510) 642-1412

Call

510.642.5249 (Box Office)

Email

Contact Form (account required)