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| Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove. |
After ‘The Killing’ (1956), Stanley Kubrick went on to do a
number of films, which were supported by large movie studios. While ‘Paths of
Glory’, ‘Spartacus’, and ‘Lolita’ have also attracted critical appreciation throughout
the years, these films represented works that Kubrick has not yet been able to
exert maximum artistic control on his projects – in particular, ‘Spartacus’. It
was only in 1964, when ‘Dr. Strangelove’ was released, it marked the first film
with a Kubrickian style we can now easily identify. Dr. Strangelove, one of the
most wonderful black comedies in the history of cinema, is the focus of this
article.
‘Dr. Strangelove’ was loosely based on the novel ‘Red
Alert’. Originally, Kubrick aimed to make a thriller about the paranoia of a
nuclear war during the Cold War period. On further development, the tone of the
script has significantly changed and the feel of the film became a satirical
dark comedy. It was not bad news at all – as it is ripen for Kubrick to show us
his unique brand of dark humor, which would appear again in his later work. Working
with actors from his previous work, such as Peter Sellers (who started as 3
roles in the film) and Sterling Hayden, with other actors such as George C.
Scott and Slim Pickens, Dr. Strangelove was noted for a number of memorable
characters, and the wonderful ensemble performance of this group of great
actors contributed significantly to the monumental fun you can give from a film
with an apparently serious theme. Dr. Strangelove marked the first time Kubrick
was recognized by the Oscar, where he got nominations as producer, director and
writer of the film.
Two fun facts before we get serious. First, ‘Dr.
Strangelove’ was one of the most significant films to show Kubrick’s obsession
with the number ‘114’. This Kubrickian number has since been appeared in many
of his later work.
The second fun fact is related to the use – or misuse – of a
payphone. In ‘Dr. Strangelove’, it showed us what we should do if we do not
have changes for a payphone – blast the hell out of the nearby vending machine!
This ‘no pain, no gain’ approach has also been varied and repeated in some
later films, too.
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| Turgidson (Geoege C. Scott) and President Muffley (also Peter Sellers). |
The story was a satire on the possible fear of a nuclear war
between USA and USSR
during the Cold War Period. The saga was initiated by a General Jack D. Ripper
(Sterling Hayden in a memorable performance), which has developed an intense
paranoia about the ‘red’ political power. Believing a conspiracy of the USSR to pollute USA people’s ‘precious bodily
fluids’ (the way he put it), Ripper decided to take action – without the
consent of the President, of course. First, Ripper ordered his executive
officer, Mandrake (Peter Sellers), to put the Air Force Base on alert. When
Mandrake insisted that no order from the Pentagon has requested such an action,
Ripper locked them both in the office. Ripper further ordered an all-round
attack on Russia
through the air force. In order to keep it secret, communication could only be
possible though a CRM 114 discriminator, and the code was only known by Ripper
himself.
On the other hand at the ‘War Room’ in the Pentagon, President
Muffley (also by Peter Sellers) was angered to know that an attack has been
initiated even without his authorization. General Buck Turgidson (George C.
Scott’s smashing performance) tried to reassure him that things would be okay,
and his deputies were literally trying every single possible 3-letter
combination to crack the code. That made totally logically sense – except, this
epic commitment would take 2 days and now they had only 2 hours. The president
decided to order the army to arrest the maniac Ripper.
At the same time, President Muffley also called the Soviet
Premier on the hot line, and after much muffled exchanges, the Russian
ambassador on the spot announced that, fearing a potential first strike from
the USA, the Russians have created a ‘doomsday device’, and if any nuclear
attack is initiated towards USSR, this device would be immediately activated,
and after numerous intense explosions, a radioactive material would persist on
Earth for a minimum of 2 months, and that would literally wipe out all lives on
the Earth and our planet would not be habitable for the next century! Worse
still, there was not an ‘off’ switch for this stunning last resort. Panicked,
Muffley asked for the opinion of Dr. Strangelove (yet another Peter Sellers)...
Now, the army troops have stormed Ripper’s hideout and
overtaken the base, forcing him to commit suicide. Mandrake seemed to figure
out the 3-letter code and relayed it to the Pentagon after destroying a vending
machine. So we will have a happy ending, right? Not so fast – how about Major
T. J. Kong (Slim Pickens)’s aircraft, for which the communication device has
been damaged and was still en route to Russia? Could they stop the doomsday machine?
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| Lost in translation? |
‘Dr. Strangelove’ could be considered as the first film that
Kubrick demonstrated his technical mastery at cinema. His previous work were
either small-budget pictures or, in the case of ‘Spartacus’, a big budget
studio picture intended at the scale of an epic. When Kubrick had complete
artistic control on his project, he started to put his original vision on
cinematic technology.
The special effects in ‘Dr. Strangelove’ were stunning and
absolutely awe-inspiring. Kubrick and his team had no access to any of the
aircrafts or bases eventually depicted in the film, as the US government
has refused them for obvious reasons. Thus, the set designers had to
re-construct the interior cockpit of the B-52 fighter, through the photograph they
have been able to obtain. With a total commitment to realism, Kubrick’s team
has been able to portray an extremely realistic look of the fighter jet, and even
military personalities were impressed with such an unprecedentedly accurate
portrayal of warfare (and have led to conspiracy by others, too).
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| The roundtable meeting in the War Room. This is a legendary and cool set design concept. |
The sequence that has risen to almost legendary status is
the battle scene at the air force base, before General Ripper killed himself.
This sequence demonstrated Kubrick’s craftsmanship as it was almost filmed by
Kubrick himself. With the use of a hand-held camera, Kubrick has been able to film
the combat scene with a sort of ‘at the spot’ feel The chaotic nature of the
shootout can be promptly experienced by the audience alike, while the motto
‘Peace Is Our Profession’ was also ironically displayed at the place of the
melee. The approach to this scene can be compared to the ‘cinéma vérité’
technique, which was highly popular in the 1960s and early 1970s. The impact of
this sequence can still be noted nowadays – as Steven Spielberg has mentioned
this sequence’s influence on ‘Saving Private Ryan’, and the sequence may also
have influenced the rhythmic and dynamic aspects of many of Christopher Nolan’s
films.
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by Ed Law
2/7/2016
Film Analysis - 67
