Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Stanley Kubrick (screenplay) &
Terry Southern (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

29 January 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Thriller

Tagline:

the hot-line suspense comedy

Plot:

An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

Plot Keywords:

General | Bomber | U.S. President | Doomsday | Doomsday Machine

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove
George C. Scott	...	General 'Buck' Turgidson
Sterling Hayden	...	Brigadier General Jack Ripper
Keenan Wynn	...	Colonel 'Bat' Guano
Slim Pickens	...	Major 'King' Kong
Peter Bull	...	Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky
James Earl Jones	...	Lieutenant Lothar Zogg
Tracy Reed	...	Miss Scott
Jack Creley	...	Mr. Staines
Frank Berry	...	Lieutenant Dietrich
Robert O'Neil	...	Admiral Randolph
Glenn Beck	...	Lieutenant Kivel (as Glen Beck)
Roy Stephens	...	Frank
Shane Rimmer	...	Captain 'Ace' Owens
Hal Galili	...	Burpelson AFB Defense Team Member

Also Known As:

A Delicate Balance of Terror (USA) (working title)
Dr. Strangelove (USA) (short title)
Edge of Doom (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements, some violent content, sexual humor and mild language. (2005 re-rating)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) (Canadian Home Video rating) | Spain:18 | Portugal:M/12 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:10 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Québec) | Finland:K-16 | France:U (re-release) | Germany:12 (re-rating) | Hong Kong:IIA | Iceland:Unrated | Ireland:PG | Japan:Unrated | Netherlands:AL (video rating) | New Zealand:PG | Norway:11 | Singapore:PG (DVD rating) | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (Certificate No. 20469) (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1970) | USA:PG (re-rating) (2004) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Arctic

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The end sequence, in which Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again" is played over several shots of nuclear explosions, was suggested by Peter Sellers' fellow ex-Goon, Spike Milligan.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Gen. Ripper and Capt. Mandrake are using the belt-fed machine gun, in one shot Mandrake is holding a chair over his head for protection, but when it cuts and the camera is behind them and Ripper crawls away from the window, Mandrake isn't holding the chair, and the closest chair is 10 feet away from him.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon: a doomsday device. Intelligence sources traced the site of the top secret Russian project to the perpetually fog-shrouded wasteland below the Arctic peaks of the Zhokhov Islands. What they were building or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place no one could say.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Five Dollar Fine (1997)

Soundtrack:

Try a Little Tenderness

Frighteningly hilarious

This movie is possibly the best comedy ever made, only with one fact against it: it's not very "comical". Hilarious? Yes. Comical? Absolutely not. The horrors of the nuclear war caused by a simple mistake materialize before us, directed with skill by the late maestro, Kubrick.

There are simply not enough words to describe Peter Sellers's BRILLIANT performance in three roles: A british officer, the U.S president and Dr. Strangelove. He is hilarious as the british officer, with his wonderful accent, gloomy and neurotic as the president and simply insane as Dr. Strangelove.

Also note that this movie includes a performance by very young James Earl Jones, who we now all know as the voice behind Darth Vader.

The ending scene is also a masterpiece.