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

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 black comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. Set during the Cold War, the film is a dark satire that critiques the dangers of nuclear war and the ineptitude of military commanders. The movie begins in the midst of a crisis, rather than building up to it, which immediately sets the tone for the rest of the film. The story takes place in 1964 and centers on a war room deep beneath the Pentagon in Washington D.C. General Jack D. Ripper, the eccentric commander of the Bomber Command at the Royal Air Force's Burpelson Air Force Base in England, has ordered a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union without the knowledge or clearance of his superiors. Ripper's reason for initiating the nuclear strike, as explained by his second-in-command, Colonel "Bat" Guano, is his obsessive paranoia about the Communist infiltration of the American water supply and his personal theory that the Russian's inhaled the fluoride of the water and allegedly took control of American minds. The crew of a B-52 bomber, led by the steely-eyed and rational Major "King" Kong, delivers the nuclear payload to the Soviet Union while straying over Soviet airspace. The crew realizes the potential consequences of their actions and attempts to launch their own nuclear-tipped missiles. Major Kong and his crew decide not to launch the "Automatic Defense System," deciding to abandon the defensive missiles and save a few to return unharmed. Meanwhile, at the war room beneath the Pentagon, U.S. President Merkin Muffley is briefed by his advisors about the crisis, and he orders them to communicate with General Ripper and try to recall the bombers from their mission. The Pentagon liaison officer, Ambassador De Sadesky, a suave and cunning Soviet diplomat, also participates in the negotiations. Strangelove, a former Nazi scientist turned presidential advisor, arrives at the war room and proclaims that the most rational response to the unfolding catastrophe would be to develop the ultimate deterrent to prevent the "doomsday machines," nuclear-capable Soviet bombers based in Eastern Europe, from launching a retaliatory strike on the US. However, this would result in more than one million people dying as a result of the resulting blast. Strangelove proclaims his plan to create a "Barometer-Radiopause-Shield," a theoretical device that might be able to protect a part of the world from the impending disaster. As the story unfolds, the tension in the war room grows, as both the US and the Soviet Union have placed themselves at the threshold of nuclear annihilation. The reactions of the characters in the war room take on increasingly farcical overtones, revealing the pathetic characters of the Cold Warriors of that era. In the end, General Ripper takes his own life to prevent himself from being tried for treason, just as a plane carrying the news reaches the room and the crew of the B-52 manage to drop a single bomb on the war and the rest remain unlaunched. As the planes fly back towards their original altitude and the bombs are revealed to be an endless parade of a doomsday's list of cities that had made up an enormous wave of nuclear munitions that Soviet bombers would be deployed, Muffley understands the sinister outcome that Strangelove's "Doomsday Machine" has the potential of deploying by simply cutting communication lines - silencing negotiations and those taking part, rendering them, ultimately, powerless. George C. Scott's authoritative and menacing performance as General Buck Turgidson brings a level of humanity to this twisted, yet darkly funny satire about a national crisis that had become a real concern to everyone. By combining the stark elements of a nuclear catastrophe with black humor, Kubrick effectively tugs at the viewer's emotions on a tragic and yet utterly dark comedy like Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.