Kubrick explores nuclear war threat in satiric film

What else could possibly be funnier than Nuclear War? For legendary director Stanley Kubrick, nothing.

In the early 1960s, Kubrick set out to make a chilling Cold War drama about the likelihood of a nuclear war from Peter George's novel Red Alert. What he ended up with was a chaotically funny dark comedy and a film masterpiece simply titled Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Even though the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union does not exist anymore, Dr. Strangelove is still able to entertain audiences while serving as a warning about the dangers of nuclear weapons.

The movie, which succeeds by taking frightening and suspenseful situations and putting a humorous twist on them, begins with a Gen. Jack D. Ripper going mad and ordering the bombers under his command to attack the Soviet Union.

Gen. Ripper seals off his base, Burpelson Air Force Base, so his troops will think they are at war with the Soviets, while at the same time preventing other U.S. troops from entering the base and recalling the bombers. A British liaison officer named Capt. Mandrake, played by Peter Sellers, is stationed at Burpelson. He sees that Gen. Ripper has gone insane, and desperately tries to convince him to call the bombers back. Meanwhile at the War Room in Washington D. C., President Merkin Muffley, also played by Sellers, is advised on the situation by Gen. "Buck" Turgidson, amazingly acted by George C. Scott, and ex-Nazi German Scientist Dr. Strangelove, once again played by Sellers.

The president, in a joint operation with Soviet Premier Kissoff, is able to either call back all the bombers, or have them destroyed. One bomber plane, however, is able to sneak through the Soviet defenses, and continues on its mission to drop its nuclear payload onto its target.

The situation becomes even more intense when it is discovered the Soviets have invented a Doomsday device, which can only be set off if a nuclear weapon is detonated inside the Soviet Union. Once this Doomsday device is activated it will destroy all life on the planet. Sounds like a pretty funny movie doesn't it?

The seriousness of the film's topic, and the fact it was made during the height of the Cold War, is what makes its humorous moments so funny.

Kubrick triumphs in showing just how ridiculous nuclear warfare is. He is able to take a situation that would normally be disturbing to watch and show how absurd the truth really is, like in a scene where American troops are battling each other at Burpelson Air Force Base in front of a large sign that reads "Peace is our Business."

While the plot is serious and some of the realistic situations are funny, the real humor comes from the exaggerated characters in the movie. Sellers brings completely different comedic forms to the roles he plays. He portrays Capt. Mandrake and President Muffley with a bit of dry humor, while the character of Dr. Strangelove is acted in a more slapstick comedy manner.

With Sellers creating laughs in three different roles, normally it would be hard for any other actors to be noticed, but Scott's presence is just as strong in his one role. His depiction of Gen. "Buck" Turgidson is mesmerizing. The audience knows Gen. Turgidson is just as crazy as Gen. Ripper is, but Scott makes them like his character and look forward to the scenes that he is in.

Kubrick has a gift for film making, creating such classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, and he uses his gift to its fullest potential in Dr. Strangelove. Like most of his movies, Dr. Strangelove is unlike anything you've seen before. It is a strange absurd movie on a hauntingly serious topic and Kubrick is probably the only person who could have pulled it off, and he did.