Saturday 3 February 2018

Dr Strangeglove, I finally managed to watch the whole thing :)

Confession: I has seen snippets but not the whole film; so therefore long overdue I treated myself tonight (see posting date) to watch the "whole thing" on Netflix .. "Dr Strangeglove; or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb". Oh boy, do you laugh or cry or laugh crying? Peter Sellers was brilliant multiple time (easy as the comic genius plays multiple characters) over and George C. Scott is no longer "Patton" in my eyes but General Buck Turgidson (see below, I cannot decide which photograph I like or fear better):

The "Thinking General":


Or the "Flustered General":


Meanwhile the President slowly sees his legacy to the world, "Nuclear Armageddon", unfolding before his disbelieving eyes (see below):


But the film is ultimately stolen by the wheelchair bound Dr Strangeglove and his rational but crazy thought processes that define the principles of Cold War MAD [Mutually Assured Destruction] (see below):


Our ultimate fate is unfortunately decided (or rather doomed) by good old fashioned American ingenuity and know how that opens the bomb bay doors (see below):


So, how close to the truth was it?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true

Even more bizarre are the bits that Kubrik cut from the film because it they were too strange enough or he deemed tasteless:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/rare-images-dr-strangelove-custard-pie-fight

On a final note the President ultimately has the last say:
"Gentleman. You can't fight in here. This is  the war room!"


2 comments:

Red_Cardinal said...

The really scary real-life psychopathic looney in the 1960s was General Curtis LeMay; the prototype of all those crazed fictional Generals who actually believe they can win a nuclear war

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

The one bomb to knock out the USSR
That @one bomb@ being SAC
Always patrolling with B-52's!