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It's 1964. The cold war is raging. The conflict in Southeast
Asia is rapidly escalating. The Republican Party is grooming
Barry Goldwater for the presidency. The nuclear deterrent
of MAD - mutually assured destruction - taints our existence.
And as it so frequently does, film mirrors society's concerns.
That year sees the release of several excellent nuclear threat
dramas (whose release to DVD I eagerly await). Columbia's
Failsafe portrays the chilling consequences of an electrical
malfunction that triggers an attack on the Soviet Union. Warner's
Seven Days in May offers a conspiracy by top US military leaders
to overthrow the President of the United States simply because
he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union.
But the first, and certainly the most sardonic entry, is Stanley
Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb.
General Jack D. Ripper (a wonderfully restrained performance
by Sterling Hayden) has become quite paranoid. Unfortunately,
he commands a wing of the Strategic Air Command. To preserve
the American way of life and to protect the purity of essence
of our precious bodily fluids, he issues the go-code at the
failsafe point. He orders his wing to attack the Soviet Union.
He calls a Red Alert, seals his base, confiscates all radios
and televisions, and warns his ground forces to be vigilant,
to repel any attempt to enter the base by anyone.
In steps his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
(Peter Sellers) on special assignment in an officer exchange
program. Very British, very proper, spit and polish, aviator's
moustache neatly combed, he could have just stepped out a
Spitfire fresh from splashing a few Gerry's into the Channel.
Air Force General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott in a well-played
and uncharacteristic comic role), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, is called to the War Room under the Pentagon where
President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers, again) has called
a crisis meeting. Muffley invites Soviet Ambassador De Sadesky
(Peter Bull) to the meeting, an unprecedented action.
Onboard a B-52 bomber named The Leper Colony, Major T. J.
"King" Kong is piloting his crew to target (Slim Pickens brings
a delightfully deadpan approach to an amusing amalgam of serious
import and utter silliness). Intercut with the authentic sounding
military technobabble is such nonsense as checking the contents
of a survival kit with which "a feller could have pretty good
time in Las Vegas." On the President's orders, Ripper's base
is attacked by Army troops, an airborne division from a nearby
facility, in an attempt to capture Ripper and recover the
recall code. Now over Soviet airspace, Kong's plane is nearly
blown out of the sky by a ground-to-air nuclear-tipped missile.
The President turns to his strategic adviser, an ex-Nazi named
Dr. Strangelove (Sellers in his third role) who's confined
to a wheelchair and whose right arm seems to have a mind of
its own.
Kong and his crew press on, damaged by the ground attack.
They're leaking fuel and can't reach either their prime or
secondary target. In the best spirit of American resourcefulness,
they turn to attack a target of opportunity, the Laputa ICBM
Complex. They fly well below radar detection altitude, making
finding them damn near impossible. Ripper's Air Force base
is overrun by the Army, and Ripper, fearing his inability
to stand up under torture, decides not to face the music.
Mandrake scrambles to figure out the recall code and get it
to the Pentagon while Colonel Bat Guano (Keenan Winn) threatens
to shoot the "prevert." But it would seem that nothing can
stop Kong. And in one of the most memorable sequences in film,
Major Kong finds himself riding a 30-Megaton Hydrogen Bomb
bareback to ground-burst at Laputa.
What's mankind to do? Go to ground for a hundred years, suggests
Dr. Strangelove. One hundred thousand top people, with a ten-to-one
female-to-male ratio, polygamously repopulating the Earth.
The men are intrigued. And halfway across the globe, the Soviet
doomsday machine begins to spray a deadly cloud of radioactivity
into the atmosphere. Dr. Strangelove is a showcase for the
chameleon-like talents of the great Peter Sellers. His most
financially successful role is Jacques Clouseau, and that
would seem to be his legacy. But this wonderfully gifted comedian
and actor could transform himself into a bewildering number
of characters, and in more than one film, played multiple
roles. Enjoy him at his prime.
The delightful screenplay was written by Terry Southern,
Stanley Kubrick, and Peter George, who wrote the novel on
which the film was based. (Although all could have benefited
from a lesson in nuclear half-life.) This is a very dark comedy,
brilliantly satirical, that makes clear how impractical the
policy of MAD really is. Yet, it would take decades for the
superpowers to come to this same self-evident conclusion.
And how much has changed? Even as you read this, thousands
of nuclear weapons are poised to destroy. And insecure and
distrustful countries are hard at work developing weapons
in a naive attempt to catch up with existing nuclear powers.
Perhaps a DVD player and a copy of Dr. Strangelove should
be sent to every deluded leader who believes that such power
is manageable.
A Little Strangelove Trivia
After you've enjoyed the film, go back to the scene in which
Dr, Strangelove is extolling the virtues of starting society
afresh from underground. As he pummels his right arm when
it uncontrollably yanks on the wheel of his wheelchair, watch
great character-actor John Bull's stern face. He nearly loses
it. I'd bet that this was Seller's best take, and Kubrick
decided that since everyone's attention would be focussed
on Strangelove, no one would notice. Ah, the pleasures of
home theater.
In an interesting coincidence, the embodiment of Darth Vader
in the form of David Prowse is in Clockwork Orange and the
voice of Darth Vader is in Dr. Strangelove. Look for James
Earl Jones as one of Kong's crew.
Kubrick may have set a new special effects standard in his
2001: a space odyssey released in 1968, but in this 1964 film,
the sad state of special effects is painfully apparent. Even
the continuity was sloppy. Note the shadow of a World War
II B-17 on the ground during some of the simulated airborne
shots of the model B-52.
When the navigator calls off the bomber's range to the Laputa
ICBM Complex as 10 miles, it takes almost four minutes to
fly three miles closer, damn slow for a plane that cruises
as 600 MPH.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
This Columbia release simply recycles the transfer marketed
by Warner in 1999 as part of their Kubrick Collection. I carefully
compared the two DVDs, switching back and forth between two
synchronized DVD players. I then switched the discs in the
players to ensure that any differences in the players hadn't
fool me. The transfers look identical. When the film was shown
theatrically, the aspect ratio switched back and forth between
1.66:1 and the Academy Ratio of 1.37:1. So as you'd expect,
Strangelove is presented in 4:3 fullscreen and non-anamorphic
letterbox video. As I normally do with Kubrick's films, I
matted the film to 1.78:1, fully involving my 16x9 screen.
Based on the composition, I feel that I missed nothing and,
once again, I found this more satisfying than projecting it
as 4:3 image with black bands frequently surrounding the image.
(Sorry Mr. Kubrick, your film looks fine this way.)
For a non-anamorphic presentation, the quality of the video
is excellent. The black and white print may have nicks and
scratches here and there, and I don't like the visible line
structure of 4:3 video, but the picture is reasonably sharp
and clear. There's little intrusive edge enhancement, but
the detail processing does make the film grain more visible.
The contrast and brightness are excellent, with deep blacks,
but shadow detail is lacking. I suspect that this is due to
the original elements.
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
The Dolby 2.0 track is monaural. The quality of the 1964
sound is a little nasal, but the dialog is crystal clear,
every cynical word. There is little low end, but little if
any distortion or blemish to mar the track.
English is one of four available spoken languages; French,
Spanish, and Portuguese are also included, along with optional
Closed Captions in English and English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Chinese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
This is where this disc far surpasses the previous supplement-starved
Warner release; Columbia has included several nice extras.
In a new 13-minute Documentary produced for this disc
called The Art of Stanley Kubrick from Short Films to Strangelove,
you'll enjoy a biographical sketch that traces Kubrick's life
from his childhood introduction to photography to the production
of Dr. Strangelove. A second Featurette is the
generous, 45-minute Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove.
This is an excellent montage of interviews, photographs, and
film clips that details the writing, design, casting, and
shooting of the film. Columbia included the Split-screen
Interviews of George C. Scott and Peter Sellers shot to
promote the film. A grudging Scott seems put out and a trifle
bored. But Sellers is a delight, demonstrating his wonderful
ear and mastery of accents. As he speaks, his voice travels
from Southern England to London to Northern England to Scotland.
I'm looking forward to the release of his more droll performances
in the English comedies he made during the decade before he
moved his career to Hollywood.
In an Original Advertising Gallery you'll find a variety
of stills of one-sheets, lobby cards, and other publicity
materials. Talent Files highlights a partial filmography
and list of awards for Kubrick and six of the principal actors.
And there are three fullscreen Trailers: Dr. Strangelove;
Fail Safe; and Anatomy of a Murder. The film
is partitioned into twenty-eight Chapter Stops.
Parting Thoughts
Entertaining extras, reasonable transfer, excellent film
- one that deserves to be in any film buff's collection. Highly
recommended despite Columbia's failed opportunity to matte
the film to 1.78:1 and provide a new anamorphic transfer.
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