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

Release Year: 1964

Rating: 8.6/10 (193,094 voted)

Critic's Score: 96/100

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden

Storyline
Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper of Burpelson Air Force Base, he believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S. populace, is able to deploy through a back door mechanism a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without the knowledge of his superiors, including the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Buck Turgidson, and President Merkin Muffley. Only Ripper knows the code to recall the B-52 bombers and he has shut down communication in and out of Burpelson as a measure to protect this attack. Ripper's executive officer, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (on exchange from Britain), who is being held at Burpelson by Ripper, believes he knows the recall codes if he can only get a message to the outside world. Meanwhile at the Pentagon War Room, key persons including Muffley, Turgidson and nuclear scientist and adviser, a former Nazi named Dr...

Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern

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

Taglines: the hot-line suspense comedy

Release Date: 29 January 1964

Filming Locations: Arctic

Box Office Details

Budget: $1,800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: DEM 135,694 (West Germany) (24 December 1987) (21 Screens)

Gross: $9,440,272 (USA) (31 December 1994)

Runtime: 95 min

Trivia:
Many of the characters have names which are double entendres or innuendos: Jack D. Ripper refers to the famous London murderer; Merkin Muffley's names refer to female parts - a merkin is a pubic hair wig and muff is slang for women's pubic hair; Turgidson's first name is "Buck" and "turgid" is a word describing the condition of an erect penis; the Soviet premier is "Kissoff"; the Soviet ambassador is named after the Marquis de Sade (the original "sadist"); and the title character is called "Strangelove".

Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When General Jack D. Ripper is firing the .30 caliber machine gun with the assistance of Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, he is holding the machine gun by the barrel. In reality, this would quickly cause serious burns and would not be possible for more than a few seconds.

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.

Laughing at Fear

Rating: 10/10

What makes this film so powerful is the message that it made at the time of its release. This film came out at a height of paranoia of the nuclear age and the Cold War, right around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This film depicts a horrible, tragic incident in which a breach in the government and a few diplomatic mistakes result in nuclear holocaust. So, why didn't this film inspire panic? Because of the brilliant way in which Kubrick presents it... as a satire. The scariest thing about this film in retrospect is not how it depicts the impending doom of the Cold War, but how it makes you laugh at it. By presenting it with humor, it conveys just how much of a farce the nuclear arms race was in real life. And I don't think that any other film has captured the absurdity of war nearly as well as this one has. And I am not likely to believe that one ever will. In my opinion, Kubrick has never made a better film since. And kudos to George C. Scott for his astounding performance, as well as Peter Sellers for the most versatile acting I've seen from an actor in one film, and to Sterling Hayden, for performing the most serious, yet the most hilarious role in film with perfect accuracy. Beware of fluoridation!

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