Dr Strangelove
Stanley Kubrick isn’t the first filmmaker to explore that which, in essence, unites mankind. But, with Dr Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), I’d say that he is the first to suggest, with equal measures of cerebral political satire and derangement, that what unites mankind is our blind submission to fear and the orders established by authoritarian rule to both perpetuate and abate it. If you think Kubrick’s interpretation is somewhat absurd, slightly ludicrous or downright convoluted then you’ve either seen the film before or you’ve got an inherent grasp on the major themes and overarching tone of Dr Strangelove.
The premise is sheer genius: United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D Ripper, who sits in control of the Burpelson Air Force base, loses his mind and becomes convinced there is a Communist conspiracy to contaminate everyone in the world via water fluoridation and decides the only way to stop them is to bomb the Soviet Union. In order to do so, without presidential approval, General Ripper must deploy Wing Attack Plan R – an attack plan put in place to allow US forces to retaliate, free of Pentagon approval, if foreign forces should wipe out Washington DC. And so begin the acts of authoritarian bungling and bureaucratic illogic that culminate in a doomsday device being irrevocably set to obliterate all living creatures.
Released at a time when fear of the A-bomb, and the H-bomb, consumed America, Dr Strangelove, much like Kubrick’s later satirical and subversive war film Full Metal Jacket (1987), emphasised the potential consequences of a system in which fear is institutionalised. It also explores with aplomb the folly of bestowing far reaching power upon a few scared and stupid men.
Now, when although the global nuclear holocaust predicted in so much science-fiction of the 1950s and ‘60s has not happened, but there has been decade after decade of warfare and terrorism which has built fear. It is timely that Dr Strangelove should be restored and remastered onto 4K for a theatrical re-release. Now shown in over four times the standard resolution, Kubrick’s hilarious insight into the insanity of fear-related reactions and warfare, performed on screen by no less than three outstanding incarnations of Peter Sellers, will make an even clearer mockery of the systems that oppress us all. So much more than just the film with some of the most quotable quips in cinema history, let Dr Strangelove and a very large round table of ‘important’ men teach you some terribly important lessons, including of course, everyone’s favourite: ‘Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.’
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb begins its theatrical re-release in Australia with an exclusive week long season, Monday November 28 – Sunday December 4, at The Astor Theatre in Melbourne.
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Tara Judah is a freelance film writer and blogger who prefers a mediated experience of life and spends far too much time on twitter. She blogs here: www.liminalvision.wordpress.com She is on twitter @midnightmovies
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