Dr. Strangelove is adapted from a novel Red Alert. It was a hype of the Cold War as well as the weaponry competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R in the 1960s. The story is about how a right wing extremist commander of the U.S. decides to send planes to attack the U.S.S.R. in order to force the U.S. to declare an all-out war against communism. The mainstream strategic thinking at that time is MAD, mutual assured destruction: Peace is maintained by the balance of terror based on the knowledge that the other side has all the capacity and the determination to mutual destruction if attacked.
Stanley Kubrick decided that MAD is simply mad so he was going to make the thriller novel into a hilarious satire. The topic and the timing are way too sensitive, so when Dr. Strangelove was screened, a title card was added and it goes like this: “It is the stated position of the U.S. Air Force that their safeguards would prevent the occurrence of such events as are depicted in this film. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the characters portrayed in this film are meant to represent any real persons in living or dead.” The audiences burst into laughter even before the movie began.
There are several story lines in Dr. Strangelove. The extremist commander sent out the planes and shut down all communication of the military base. He is not for negotiation; he wants a war! A British exchange officer was trapped together with the commander, and all he could do is to try to calm down the commander and get the code to recall the planes. The British officer is Peter Sellers.
In the War Room, high ranking politicians and generals have an emergency meeting to discuss about the solution. General Turgidson tried to persuade the President of the U.S. to declare a war. “Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops! Uh, depending on the breaks.”
Contrary to the bold and reckless general, the President is bald and patient. “I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.” “That's right, sir, you are the only person authorized to do so. And although I, uh, hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like, uh, General Ripper exceeded his authority.” “When you instituted the human reliability tests, you assured me there was no possibility of such a thing ever occurring!” “Well, I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.”
The President had no choice but to call Soviet Premier Dimitri. “You know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb... Well now, what happened is... ahm... one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny. And, ah... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country... Ah... Well, let me finish, Dmitri... Let me finish, Dmitri... Well listen, how do you think I feel about it?” The image and voice of Dimitri was not shown in the movie so it’s a one-man show of the President, who is also played by Peter Sellers.
Since it was not feasible to recall the planes, the President offered details to the Soviet Premier to make sure that the planes would be taken down before they make any damage. The front-line flight officers were easily sold out. Unfortunately one flight survived and was loyally on the way to complete the mission. The U.S.S.R. ambassador revealed the existence of the “doomsday machine”, which will activate automatically and can not be deactivated. The President had enough of warlike General Turgidson, so he turned to Dr. Strangelove for advice.
Dr. Strangelove is an ex-Nazi scientist, who is naturalized as a U.S. citizen after WW2. He sits on a wheel chair, blond, wears sunglasses and leather gloves, and talks with a wicked smirk. He said that the doomsday machine is unstoppable so the only solution is to build an underground shelter and pick healthy, intelligent, fertile people moving in to reproduce. Dr. Strangelove suggested that all government officers should be admitted, and that the male/female ratio should be 1:10 to ensure productive breeding. General Turgidson was so excited by the idea and only on this matter the U.S.S.R. ambassador agrees with Turgidson; two sides of the Cold War found common ground on the priority of male fantasy.
Dr. Strangelove has trouble controlling his right hand. It was not explained in the movie but it is a rare disorder called alien hand syndrome. Due to stroke or brain surgery, the patient can not control one of his hands and it tends to contradict the normal hand, so the patient perceives it as a hand of someone else’s. Dr. Strangelove’s alien hand exercised its own will when he talked about eugenics: Salute to Hitler! He addressed to the President as “Mein Führer” as a slip of tongue. The portrayal of ex-Nazi scientists has reference to reality, for there were strategists with Nazi background among high ranking U.S. consultants, and the alien hand reveals that Dr. Strangelove is no less a Nazi. Dr. Strangelove is, again, played by Peter Sellers.
British accent on a nervous officer, Mid-west American accent on a serious politician, and German accent on a crazy scientist: Peter Sellers didn’t count on magical cosmetology or computerized special effect as we have today to perform multiple roles, but mainly build them on the ability to mimic different accent and to construct a personality.
George C. Scott is equally impressive as General Turgidson. As an advocate of war, General Turgidson has the hawk-like look in the eyes, and George C. Scott plays it in a serious way delivering those most absurd lines. There was a scene that General Turgidson disagreeing with the U.S.S.R. ambassador. He was rude enough to interrupt the ambassador, walked backwards and tripped himself, rolled over on the ground and got back on his feet and resumed talking as if nothing bothers him.
George C. Scott was tricked into to do this. Reportedly he preferred to do it in a more reserved way but Kubrick asked him to do an “over the top” acting just to warm up. In the final cut it is the “over the top” version that Kubrick uses. George C. Scott said he’ll never work with Kubrick again. He later played General Patton with a lot of authorities; maybe he considers General Turgidson to be distorted? I have no access to the reserved takes but I have to say that I enjoy his “over the top” performance so much and I think it is just adequate for Dr. Strangelove. I replay the tripping scene several times and it never stops to amaze me.
After Dr. Strangelove, it is impossible to think of Peter Sellers in the same way I did. He becomes a riddle. As someone capable of what he did in Dr. Strangelove, why did he do the Pink Panther?
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