Dr.Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

[Johnny Dollar]

Has there ever been a better black comedy than this one? Has there even ever been a better comedy? Maybe, Some Like it Hot.

So many great lines and great scenes. General Ripper and fluoridation. Keenan Wynn and the Coke machine. General Buck Turgid and the hot 'secretary'. The 'President',Peter Sellers shouting,"Gentlemen,you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

And the final, wonderful, "Survival Plan" scene by the deranged Doctor.
Sellers played 3 roles,the British Captain,the President and the Doctor, and was brilliant in all 3. We have had very few greater comic actors in the first 110 years of motion picture film history.

Sterling Hayden has his best performance as General Ripper.
George C.Scott,Keenan Wynn and Slim Pickens are wonderful.

Made at the very height of the Cold War in 1964, it was a chilling comedy at the time. It still resonates.

And it is still wonderful. Stanley Kubrick at his most sublime and that is at very top of a very small group.

Here is the fantastic final 5 minutes of the Doctor's Survival plan. Enjoy.

[Lanius]

Has there ever been a better black comedy than this one? Has there even ever been a better comedy? Maybe, Some Like it Hot.

I don't know. Fish Called Wanda?

It's very good.. but then, so is Catch-22. The briefing scene ...

[lee n. field]

"Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"

[basicblur]

The extras on the DVD weren't too bad!

[Johnny Dollar]

General Ripper discusses our Precious Bodily Fluids with Colonel Mandrake!

[Johnny Dollar]

The Grand Finale. Major Kong Rides the Bomb!

[Varmiter]

JD,

First of all, I hope you, or anyone else here does not think I’m attempting to hijack your thread.

Yes, it was a fun(ish) film. I did (kinda) enjoy it....maybe a little bit.

For us who were actually involved or aware of what was going on at the time, the film came closer to the truth than most realize.

I was stationed at Thule AB, Greenland when the “Chrome Dome” which we actually called the “Hard Hat” B-52, with four hydrogen bombs crashed on the SEA ICE in Baffin Bay, 7 miles from the base at Thule, on Jan 21, 1968.

The B52 was returning to its ‘Fail Safe’ position near Thule after refueling when a fire broke out in the navigators compartment. The crew was unable to contain the fire and began an immediate descent toward Thule. They lined up, set the autopilot, and the crew bailed out, with the aircraft heading almost due north magnetically, which equates to almost (at the time) geographically to due west. The position of the magnetic north pole has changed considerably since then. Two complete flight crews were carried then . Two pilots and one navigator FOR EACH HANDLING CREW. The handling pilots punched out upward and the handling navigator punched out downward as was the configuration of the B52 at the time. The second, or off duty crew, followed the navigator and bailed out downward. All 6 people were recovered. Five with minor frostbite, and the second navigator was found dead because his chute was actually on fire when he bailed out.

Now here comes the scary part, The B52 was on autopilot, headed out to sea, when, while still descending, made a 180 degree turn and was lined up perfectly with the runway when it crashed 7 miles short. Had it not crashed short, but been able to continue, the explosion would have killed hundreds, not only with the initial explosion, but radioactive contamination.

I personally, having been involved with the ferrying hundreds to the crash site during the cleanup process, managed to remain uncontaminated. Others I worked and flew with were not so fortunate. Needless to say, many of them are now gone due to radiation contamination.

This particular incident/accident, ended the ‘fail safe’ operations, as well as a dramatic change in the explosives used to initiate detonation of the bomb to something much more stable.

To this day, there is STILL a secondary device, that has not been recovered, and don’t forget, this happened in 1968.

Now...substitute, the idiotic “powers that be” in the film for the fire onboard, which is actual fact, and its not too difficult to see how circumstances, beyond anyone’s control, can lead to..............

[Loosedhorse]

One of my favorite movies. So many throw-away one-liners.

As Col. Bat Guano says to his suspected "prevert":

Okay, I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you? . . . You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.

[zxcvbob]

I wonder if Slim Pickens knew it was a comedy

[GoWolfpack]

I wonder if Slim Pickens knew it was a comedy

According to Wikipedia (we all know it must be true then), he didn't.

Pickens was not told that the movie was a comedy and was only given the script for scenes he was in, to get him to play it "straight."

Source

[Johnny Dollar]

Great info! Thanks,Wolfpack.

[Treo]

The Bk was better

[GoWolfpack]

The Bk was better

The book wasn't a comedy (first edition anyway).

[pmeisel]

Varmiter, thanks for the backbrief. I was aware of the incident but not of many of the details you provided....

[Nickotym]

The movie was made in 1963 and the Thule incident was 1968, so i guess the movie was somewhat prophetic, eh?

[pmeisel]

Like The China Syndrome and Three Mile Island......