When I watch reactions to this film, I never feel like Peter Sellers is getting the appreciation he fully deserves - mostly because people don't initially realise how many characters he is playing. He really was a special talent.
Supposedly, Sellers was to play Major Kong as well (the pilot who "rode" the bomb). I've read conflicting reasons why he didn't, but it would have been a trip seeing Seller play a bronco bustin' Texan!
As an Englishman, I LOVE Ripper calling to Mandrake - "give me a hand, the Redcoats are coming!". He actually said that to a BRITISH officer. Funny as hell.
@theaikidoka Sterling Hayden who plays Brigadier Jack D Ripper was also a sailor and real life Marine . he appears in The Killing a Noir thriller also directed by Stanley Kubrick they should react to that Mrs Movies may enjoy that more i for one loved this movie , it's such a fierce and hilarious satire and one of my favs .
Funny thing is that sentence was the theme for a game jam I did in college. ended up turning that into a game that was basically a mortal combat style cockfighting game between russians and americans in the basement of the white house where you worked your way up to stronger opponent roosters until you got to the last one that was a dog with a glove stuck on its head in a nod to what kramer said to jerry in that seinfeld episode. Abilities were all parodies like force lighting sort of thing that if it hit a critical would turn your opponent into a bucket of fried chicken, healing abilities called herbs and spices and finishing moves like extra crispy or getting pecked until your opponent fell over into the deep fryer I was surprised at how confused the judges looked trying to figure out how we came up with that concept out of that sentence
I also love "Boy, I wish WE had one-a those Doomsday Machines!" I use the "Boy I wish WE had one-a those _______" whenever I see something really cool.😂
I think the lipstick & nylon stockings in their “survival pack” is meant as items the soldiers could use as barter for relations with women (or in general as substitutes for money,) as things soldiers learned were valuable in previous wars.
Exactly. Growing up in the 60s I recall the nylons, lipsticks and Hershey bars as a WW2 trope. Since those were scarce during the war they were valuable for barter. (Still my ATF movie.)
@@randyshoquist7726 I remember there was a comedian that used to talk about his experience in Vietnam. He once told a story of handing out Hershey bars to kids in a village, and one of the kids tossed a grenade into the group of GI's. He talked about how the only thought going through his mind was "If you don't like Hershey with Almonds just say so".
People in Soviet Union paid a lot for 'western' stuff banned in there, like nylon stockings and lipstick. I live in Finland and people used to travel to Soviet Union and bring stockings and stuff to sell and finance the trip. You couldn't bring the money back so they had to use it all in there locally.
yeah they said, like Sid Caesar, if they weren't doing a character, they had NO personality at all. like, Lucille Ball, if you told her a joke, she would just stare, because she didn't get it at all.
@@danielcobbins8861 I think the questions were about what should have been classified equipment. The set designers seemed to know things they shouldn’t.
Story goes that Kubrick tried to develop this as a serious drama, but the more research they did, the more absurd it all became, and the only way to talk about it rationally seemed to be as comedy.
A very dark comedy for sure. I remember NBC training in USMC, listening to how to survive after NBC attack and remember thinking "I am not sure I really want to survive it that badly" since the outlooks are all pretty bleak. I remember once having to fire my M-16 in full MOPP Level 4 and realizing while I was dying of heat stroke I would need that commie to stand perfectly still about 3 yards away to hit him. It would probably me more accurate to just shut your eyes and listen to aim your shot for all the good it is to try an use the weapons sites with a gas mask on. That training is all intended to give you confidence you can continue to fight in all that gear, but honestly it did the opposite for me.
While shooting aerial footage over Greenland, the second unit camera crew accidentally filmed a secret US military base. Their plane was forced down, and the crew was suspected of being Soviet spies.
Kubrick and crew were also interviewed by the CIA under suspicion of being Soviet Spies as the recreation of the B52's interior was so accurate they were convinced there had been an intelligence leak, rather than a single picture from a book and a load of guessing.
I cannot express the exquisite joy of seeing this moving for the first time, while serving in the United States Marine Corps. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe basically thee entire movie.
Though he also got tricked by Kubrick into giving such an over-the-top performance, as he wanted to give Turgidson a restrained, respectable one - so Kubrick "compromised" by having Scott do an over-the-top take first (either "for practice" or "to amuse the crew") before doing the more subdued one. Even if he acknowledged it helped the movie, Scott didn't appreciate the trickery.
@ It is estimated that the average number of takes Kubrick would do on a scene was around 30, in his insistence of perfection in every aspect. The infamous stairway scene in The Shining was the one everyone talks about, at almost 150 takes. However, Charlie Chaplin shot a 3 minute scene in “City Lights” over 300 times. There are other directors known for many takes such as Hitchcock; and William Wyler had the nickname “40 take Wyler.” And there are those at the opposite end - John Ford and Clint Eastwood were known for only one or two takes per scene.
Military here! Most of us love this movie. A masterpiece. Since 1964 people have been having the same conversations when reviewing this film as you guys had.
I was in SAC Security during the Cold War. 1983 - '87. The security of nuclear loaded B-52s was our mission. Being around those planes and protecting them was a pretty stressful job.
@@clash79the guy that while he was President, Putin DID NOT invade any countries unlike his predecessor and first successor. Nope. Sleep like baby knowing he’s back in power.
Burt Lindley, Jr. was a stalwart in B westerns and an honest-to-god bronco and bull rider. The story is that his father forbid the teenaged Pickens from competing in the rodeo, but he went behind his back. While he was trying to figure out what name to use to sign up so his dad wouldn't find out, the rodeo boss told him it didn't matter because it would be "slim pickings" as far as prize money. The teenager supposedly said, "That'll do," registered as Slim Pickens, and won $400.00 that afternoon. You can see a clip of him riding (and roping and then threatening to hit a woman!) at ruclips.net/video/L1WCbQVV0TA/видео.htmlsi=spwgSP9qaysrnPXx .
It should be noted that General Ripper was merely collecting all the radios from base personnel. He didn't want them to hear that there was nothing going on.
You're right, Mrs. Movies, this is VERY dark comedy. I've heard it said that Dr. Strangelove is at the same time both the funniest *and* the most terrifying movie ever made.
Tracy Reed as Miss Scott, General Turgidson's secretary and mistress, the film's only female character. She also appears as "Miss Foreign Affairs", the Playboy Playmate in Playboy's June 1962 issue, which Major Kong is shown perusing at one point.
The abruptness of the ending is the work of a mad genius -- And his name was Spike Milligan. The long time friend and collaborator of Sellers suggested it to Kubrick when the original ending (a massive food fight) wasn't working.
In truth, the genius was Stanley Kubrick. George C. Scott resisted the over the top performance that Kubrick wanted from his character. Most of the takes used in the film were takes which Scott hated. (And of course, Peter Sellers in his multiple characters was (as always) amazing.)
Glad you noticed the intimacy of the two planes in the beginning. The background music was "Try a Little Tenderness" @17:55, the pilot, after reading the list containing lipstick and nylons (for trade), he says "Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff" his lips don't say Vegas, they say Dallas. (the pilot is a proud Texan). Dallas was the original shoot but was dubbed Vegas before the release of the movie, shortly after the recent assassination in Dallas.
Once you start noticing all the sex metaphors and the phallic symbols, you begin to think maybe Kubrick is saying something about war. A few years later, Irene Ryan had the killer line in the musical "Pippin": "I think men raise war flags when they can't get anything else up."
The nylons & lipstick were actual standard issue. If the crew had to bail out over enemy territory, it gave them something they could trade with that was small, lightweight, and not easily accessible to locals in many parts of the world. Chewing gum, chocolate and cigarettes were also given as standard issue in the survival packs.. mainly to trade. Gave the pilots a fighting chance if the locals they encountered were friendly
True. In case of mass destruction, currency is useless. You would need some barter items in order to survive. The humor in this, of course, is those items listed are from WW2 and would probably not be particularly valuable in the USSR. If your country is destroyed, why would you desire gum and nylon stockings?
Yep. They originally planned to hit Laputa with an airburst, but trying to damage ICBMs in silos really needs a ground burst, which is why the crew were changing the settings on the bomb from 10,000' to 0'.
Thank you for this Veteran’s Day reaction from a US Air Force Cold War Veteran. While stationed on a B-52 base in 1976, a group of us watched this movie and we all thought it was both funny and frightening because we all realized how close to reality it actually was.
FYI, the same year (1964) there was a much more serious film made about the exact same subject (accidental nuke war started by the U.S.). That movie was called Fail Safe and it starred Henry Fonda as the President. That movie will really make you think. It's a must watch. In that movie, Moscow was destroyed and in order to avoid a total nuclear war, the President had to drop a nuke on New York. It was truly terrifying. Strangelove did better at the box office however.
Isn't it interesting that in both "Fail Safe" and "Dr. Strangelove" the U.S. President suggests Adlai Stevenson rather John Kennedy? (The source novel for "Fail Safe" makes it clear that the President is a second-term Kennedy, most likely in the year 1967.) If you look closely at Slim Pickens's lips as he remarks that a fellow could have a pretty good time in Vegas with the contents of the survival kit, you'll see that it's not completely in sync with the dialogue. This is because the original city was "Dallas," and after the murder of the President, it was hastily changed to Las Vegas.
I think it''s somehow adorable that Mrs. Movies is so touched by the very dark and serious basic topic of the movie, that she couldn't really enjoy the dark comedy and satire. You have to have your heart at the right place.
Kubrick brilliantly uses very dark comedy to illustrate the utter madness and absurdity of the concept of nuclear war.........this movie is masterful, brilliant, chilling and terrifying.......it's near-perfect.......
This is the best comedy I’ve ever seen in my life. This is one of the films I’d say is essentially perfect. The writing, direction is excellent and the acting is outstanding, plus this film includes the film debut of James Earl Jones. Peter Sellers should have won the Academy Award for this film, his three performances are top tier, as is the rest of the cast, but he’s the obvious standout of the cast. He was also supposed to be Slim Pickens character, but there conflicting stories as to why he didn’t play the character from him having an accident where he sprained his ankle and one where he faked having a sprained ankle to get out of playing four characters in the film. This film should have won the other Oscars it was up for, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. This is a great film and I’m glad you both have watched this. Hope you two are doing well, please take care and have a great day!
I think this was a sarcastic version of "Fail-Safe". I used to live near Syracuse, NY and while passing Rome, NY we would watch the B-52's taking off and landings. Thank You. US Navy USS Yellowstone AD-27 02/69 - 11/70.
If you look at the war room scene where Strangelove is talking to the president from his chair, you can see the actor playing the Russian ambassador trying to stop himself from laughing. FYI, The first Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber flew in April 1952. The B-52 was designed in 1948 by the Boeing Company and first delivered to the military in 1955...its still in service today. Stanley Kubrick was worried about an FBI investigation when it was shown the prop cockpit of the B-52 bomber used in the film Dr Strangelove was almost exactly like the real thing...The B-52 was classified as state-of-the-art at the time of the film release.
You young folks probably weren't around during the Cold War. We were constantly told nearly every day that the ''big one'' could happen any day. Either by someone jumping the gun, saying the wrong thing or some computer glitch. This movie is dark, accurate but it's also funny. It broke the tension in those days. That whole sequence when the President (Peter Sellers) was talking to the Soviet Premiere was ad-libbed by Sellers. And the actor playing the Soviet Ambassador was having a tough time staying character and not laughing. "Peace is our Profession" was a real sign on USAF bases. We had them on ours. Our Security squadron was called the "Peacekeepers" and we had armored vehicles that were called Peacekeepers.
Mrs. Movies was squirming all through this movie. I could see that Kubrick was in her head, measuring the room for new carpet and curtains. Every face palm was a tell that she was consciously absorbing each scene as intended by the director and comedy or no comedy, her intelligence, once ensnared, would not let her run away from such a unique and artful dark satirical attack on her emotional well being.
I'm a veteran and I think this film is hilarious. It depicts how conflicting rules & orders can bring about problems or disasters. My dad was in the Air Force and after his team replaced a bad engine on a plane some officer told them to replace it, would not take any comments so they took the good engine off as ordered.
When Reagon went nuts and pushed provoking the Soviets further and further the spies in Russia panicked and called him, that whatever they do, they should stop, because the soviets thought they would indeed prepare for a first strike against them and fueled their rockets and bomber... Cuba crisis, when the USA started to 'bomb' soviet submarines to force to to emerge, one of the nuclear armed(!) submarines had the real discussion on board, that when the US ships attacked them, the war has started and the should use the nuclear arsenal to obliterate the whole fleet. It was 2vs1 leading officers for this first, but the one against managed to persuade the others to emerge and communicate with Moscow first. That's just two of the examples we know of...
Fun fact, kubrick actually filmed in a b52, the skills he picked up in close quarters cramped set enabled him to secretly stow away on the apollo mission and film the moon landing.
The FBI contacted them, as the interior of the B52s was secret. However, as it's essentially a (complex) Bomber, they configured the layout as per a logical format (or at least, that's what they told the investigators).
Same year too... JFK pushed for the military to cooperate in the making of Fail Safe, written by "Eugene Leonard Burdick (December 12, 1918 - July 26, 1965) was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of The Ugly American (1958), Fail-Safe (1962), and author of The 480 (1965)"
The movie started out as a serious project but when Kubrick was developing the screenplay he realized the whole situation of the military and cold war was so absurd he decided to make it a dark comedy.
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@@Thudsrayz John Kennedy said: "If you have to go, you want LeMay in the lead bomber. But you never want LeMay deciding that you have to go." Selecting him as his running mate in 1968 did George Wallace's third party candidacy no real favors.
Sterling Hayden, Jack D Ripper, was also the crooked cop in godfather, but before that, he was in the forerunner of the CIA fighting in World War II behind enemy lines. Guy was a big war hero, but went anonymous because of the nature of his work
Both General Ripper and General Turgedson were based on General Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay, head of SAC who was known for smoking cigars and for being a super-hawk.
Few films catch the utter insanity of the cold war. There are aspects of the humor that can only be understood by Gen X and older. A true masterpiece. The comic genius of Peter Sellers is fully realized in this film.
Some of us at the very front end of Millennial remember it too, but things were definitely winding down fast by the late 80s so it drops off within a few years. Big difference between the 'xennials' and the rest of the generation.
@@KithKanan64 Thanks for filling in that part of the puzzle. I was' not sure if Xennials were old enough for it to have settled in. I was born in 1968 but have zero memories of the era. While I have plenty of earlier memories, I'd guess my first memories of lived history would be 1976's Ford vs Carter Election and that's because I played Ford in a mock school election. As with Ford, I went down in flames.
@@childlessdoggentleman746 yeah, I'm sure it depends. I grew up in a town with a lot of hippies and anti-nuclear protest so I remember being brought to a production of "peace child the musical" and scared out of my mind by the thought of nuclear war sometime in the mid-80s when I was still in pre-school or kindergarten at the latest. Even without an experience like that though, other friends of the same age remember the cold war. I think some of Reagan's evil empire talk and the escalating tensions of the first half of the 80s must linger in our minds even if we weren't old enough to consciously remember them.
In the early 70s, I read "War Game" by a British film maker named Peter Watkins. It's about how WWlll could start and how a society will fall apart in its aftermath. Later, in the 80s, I had the opportunity to watch the 1967 pseudo-documentary it was based upon. It's nightmarish in its realism. A must for anyone who wants to know more what it was like to grow up during those decades.
Others may have already said this, but Slim Pickens was never told (until afterwards) that this was a satire and played all of his scenes as straight up serious. You can tell this if you watch his scenes and mask out the comedic aspect of them. His acting was 100% serious. In my opinion, this is as close to a Perfect Movie as is possible.
@@GeraldWalls Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and I think Leslie Nielsen. They were all serious, drama actors and were told to play their parts straight. It didn't make sense to them until the movie was finished. It's what got Nielsen to start doing the Naked Gun movies
@@Nasty-Canasta Oh, yeah, they PLAYED their roles straight but they _had_ to know it was a comedy. Nielsen had the growing nose prosthesis, Bridges had the "picked the wrong day to stop xxx" lines, and Stack had the immortal "Have you ever seen a grown man naked" line while sitting beside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Slim Pickens literally did not know the movie was a comedy. All of his scenes were serious in nature, until Riding the Bomb...
Even though the movie was shot in Black and White, Kubrick insisted that the war room table be covered in green felt to resemble a poker table. The idea was that the politicians were playing games with the world.
Two comments: First, there is a fine line between tragedy and comedy and this movie walks that line perfectly. Secondly, this is a parody of another movie worth watching called Fail-Safe that treats this exact scenario seriously.
Fail Safe came the same year as this and was a more serious movie about a similar incident (minus the doomsday machine). Even more efficient anti nuke movies that got people to wake up to the horrors of nuclear war were the TV movies The Day After (1983) and Threads (1984). The Day After takes place in and around Lawrence, Kansas. Threads takes place in Sheffield, England.
There is also On the Beach (1959, remade for TV in 2000) post a northern hemisphere war and the people in the south are living as much life as usual while knowing the radiation that is slowly covering the whole of the earth will be fatal when it arrives.
The sister movie you should watch is Fail Safe (1964). However, I'd take some time in between this movie and Fail Safe as Fail Safe is a more dramatic movie.
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 The Dead Hand is real. It was about to obliterate NATO, especally NATO emperor USA after a first strike, to make it impossible that they could succeeed with that. Could still be active, wouldn't be much of surprise. And no, we got ZERO chance to intercept that.
Greatest satire movie ever! And what should be terrifying is that when Daniel Ellsberg originally saw this in the theater, he stated that what he'd seen was essentially a documentary.
In spite of the disclaimer, it’s hard not to think of such real people as Curtis LeMay, Adlai Stevenson, Werner von Braun, etc. It’s also funny to see what used to be a strong password. And it also brings to mind the line from THE RIGHT STUFF: “Our Germans are better than their Germans.” Also look for the call-back graffiti in RAISING ARIZONA.
@@mainmac Alas, there is no shortage of hackers who are not thus constrained, so websites are typically much more stringent in their password complexity standards.
The real test to see if you like Kubrick is A Clockwork Orange. That movie is both his most approachable and most impenetrable at the same time from an enjoyability level.
I get not quite being ready for full on Stanley Kubrick but he was such a genius filmmaker. Took his time with each project. All unique to the last one and the next one and the next one. A perfectionist and a master cinematographer
I'll grant you he's a fantastic cinematographer and perfectionist, but he was a poor director, horrible at handling his actors and failed to ever get humane reactions out of them. It served him well in certain circumstances but in general it's a big hole in his directing performance, and he'd have done better working alongside an accomplished director as co-collaborator, I suspect. There is a reason many people appreciate his cinematography, but dislike his overall style.
Although he always knew he would shoot the movie in black and white, Kubrick had the top of the war room table painted the color green felt to give the subliminal image of a poker table as they were gambling with the future of the planet.
In the past we called it 'gallows humour'. Consider that most people were able to ignore that in theory we lived with the threat of nuclear annihilation for several decades. The world could end at any time with little warning. And if you think this movie is not so negative and you think you can stand worse? 'The Day after' (1983) 'When the wind blows' (1986) - animated 'Barfoot Gen' (1983) - anime Fair warning, none of them are for the faint of heart.
Oliver Stone showed this movie to Putin when he interviewed him in 2015. Putin didn't seem to get the humor, but said it was an important film and a warning to the leaders of both countries, especially now because the weapons are even more high-tech.
7:35 "Miss Scott" happens to also be "Miss Foreign Affairs"- the centrefold in the Playboy magazine Major Kong was reading on the B-52. (Yes he was "reading" Playboy specifically for the articles. 😆 )
Navy Veteran here. Most military people I know have a dark humor side and find the situations portrayed here as hilarious (as there are some parallels to this with our actual jobs). As for the bomber crew they were hell bent to do their job, and having spent my time in the military on a ballistic missile submarine in the 1980s, there was no doubt we would launch those weapons with almost 200 total warheads if ordered to do so. After all, most of the crew's family lived in base housing some 1-2 miles away from the strategic stockpile of thousands of nuclear warheads (primary Soviet target) so we assumed the family members would die in the opening salvo. That was incentive enough to pull the trigger if required.
What you probably don't know is that in the same year there was another film released called "Failsafe". In the broad strokes, it's basically very much the same story, but from a completely straight, dramatic perspective.
Bat Guano was played by Keenan Wynn, who was usually a comic second banana in the old musicals, and was a fair song and dance man: ruclips.net/video/bPduoU826ew/видео.html The first time I saw this movie, on broadcast tv, my mom described the plane sequences as "American ingenuity gone mad."
Wynn is very moving as Mr. Green in "Nashville" (1975). He acted with his father, the clown Ed Wynn, in several movies, among them the unfairly neglected "Great Man" (1956).
"Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"
Best final line ever.
I've been censored by this ridiculous site for quoting that on shorts of this movie.
That was an ad lib line by Peter Sellars.
Yes, at the end of the film, Dr. Strangelove becomes fully erect.
@@StreetHierarchy Demonetized!!
When I watch reactions to this film, I never feel like Peter Sellers is getting the appreciation he fully deserves - mostly because people don't initially realise how many characters he is playing. He really was a special talent.
Supposedly, Sellers was to play Major Kong as well (the pilot who "rode" the bomb). I've read conflicting reasons why he didn't, but it would have been a trip seeing Seller play a bronco bustin' Texan!
@@Redfern42 Slim Pickens was perfect as Major Kong. As great as Peter Sellers was, I don't think he would have been as perfect as Slim Pickens.
Very true.
As an Englishman, I LOVE Ripper calling to Mandrake - "give me a hand, the Redcoats are coming!". He actually said that to a BRITISH officer. Funny as hell.
Its lines like this that make the movie so re-watchable. So many subtle pieces of comedic genius.
@theaikidoka Sterling Hayden who plays Brigadier Jack D Ripper was also a sailor and real life Marine .
he appears in The Killing a Noir thriller also directed by Stanley Kubrick they should react to that Mrs Movies may enjoy that more
i for one loved this movie , it's such a fierce and hilarious satire and one of my favs .
Jack D. Ripper
Mandrake, in the name of Her Majesty and the Continental Congress come here and feed me this belt, boy!
In the game Arma I often say "Mandrake, get over here, the Redcoats are coming" to my assistant machinegunner
Marine. It's the funniest, most honest, horrifying, correct depiction of the military, industrial, and political world ever put onto film.
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!" - Gets me every time!!!
Same!
Best line in the film.
Yep. One of the best lines in any comedy.
Funny thing is that sentence was the theme for a game jam I did in college. ended up turning that into a game that was basically a mortal combat style cockfighting game between russians and americans in the basement of the white house where you worked your way up to stronger opponent roosters until you got to the last one that was a dog with a glove stuck on its head in a nod to what kramer said to jerry in that seinfeld episode. Abilities were all parodies like force lighting sort of thing that if it hit a critical would turn your opponent into a bucket of fried chicken, healing abilities called herbs and spices and finishing moves like extra crispy or getting pecked until your opponent fell over into the deep fryer
I was surprised at how confused the judges looked trying to figure out how we came up with that concept out of that sentence
I also love "Boy, I wish WE had one-a those Doomsday Machines!"
I use the "Boy I wish WE had one-a those _______" whenever I see something really cool.😂
I think the lipstick & nylon stockings in their “survival pack” is meant as items the soldiers could use as barter for relations with women (or in general as substitutes for money,) as things soldiers learned were valuable in previous wars.
Nylons were currency back then.
Exactly. Growing up in the 60s I recall the nylons, lipsticks and Hershey bars as a WW2 trope. Since those were scarce during the war they were valuable for barter. (Still my ATF movie.)
@@randyshoquist7726 I remember there was a comedian that used to talk about his experience in Vietnam. He once told a story of handing out Hershey bars to kids in a village, and one of the kids tossed a grenade into the group of GI's. He talked about how the only thought going through his mind was "If you don't like Hershey with Almonds just say so".
People in Soviet Union paid a lot for 'western' stuff banned in there, like nylon stockings and lipstick. I live in Finland and people used to travel to Soviet Union and bring stockings and stuff to sell and finance the trip. You couldn't bring the money back so they had to use it all in there locally.
Or the .01% they were to land in the middle of a drag queen competition.
“Maybe I don’t know who Peter Sellers is at all.” Don’t worry about it, neither did Peter Sellers…
yeah they said, like Sid Caesar, if they weren't doing a character,
they had NO personality at all.
like, Lucille Ball, if you told her a joke, she would just stare, because she didn't get it at all.
Lol😂😂😂
"There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed" ~ Peter Sellers
Correct, he didn't want to know.
The real Peter Sellers is the friends we made along the way
The set for the B52 cockpit was so accurate, that questions were asked as to how they got it so right.
Good to know.
Word has it they went inside of an old B-36 bomber, and took photos of the layout.
@@danielcobbins8861 I think the questions were about what should have been classified equipment. The set designers seemed to know things they shouldn’t.
It's not like the b52 was top secret. It was just an airplane.
@@vanamonde2 Some of the equipment in the cockpit would have been considered classified during the Cold War
Story goes that Kubrick tried to develop this as a serious drama, but the more research they did, the more absurd it all became, and the only way to talk about it rationally seemed to be as comedy.
150% believable
150% believable
A very dark comedy for sure. I remember NBC training in USMC, listening to how to survive after NBC attack and remember thinking "I am not sure I really want to survive it that badly" since the outlooks are all pretty bleak. I remember once having to fire my M-16 in full MOPP Level 4 and realizing while I was dying of heat stroke I would need that commie to stand perfectly still about 3 yards away to hit him. It would probably me more accurate to just shut your eyes and listen to aim your shot for all the good it is to try an use the weapons sites with a gas mask on. That training is all intended to give you confidence you can continue to fight in all that gear, but honestly it did the opposite for me.
The non-funny version of this story is "Fail Safe."
He found out that nukes are fake.
While shooting aerial footage over Greenland, the second unit camera crew accidentally filmed a secret US military base. Their plane was forced down, and the crew was suspected of being Soviet spies.
I saw something about them finding that plane in the ice decades later and inside was a round shield with an American flag on it.
Kubrick and crew were also interviewed by the CIA under suspicion of being Soviet Spies as the recreation of the B52's interior was so accurate they were convinced there had been an intelligence leak, rather than a single picture from a book and a load of guessing.
An absurd yet somehow logical scenario.
The opening mountain tops above the clouds was a prop using cotton wool.
I cannot express the exquisite joy of seeing this moving for the first time, while serving in the United States Marine Corps. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe basically thee entire movie.
When George C. Scott fell on the floor, that was an accident which was kept in.
Though he also got tricked by Kubrick into giving such an over-the-top performance, as he wanted to give Turgidson a restrained, respectable one - so Kubrick "compromised" by having Scott do an over-the-top take first (either "for practice" or "to amuse the crew") before doing the more subdued one. Even if he acknowledged it helped the movie, Scott didn't appreciate the trickery.
He quite literally rolled with it!
Didn't Stanley do 100+ takes!?
@ It is estimated that the average number of takes Kubrick would do on a scene was around 30, in his insistence of perfection in every aspect. The infamous stairway scene in The Shining was the one everyone talks about, at almost 150 takes. However, Charlie Chaplin shot a 3 minute scene in “City Lights” over 300 times. There are other directors known for many takes such as Hitchcock; and William Wyler had the nickname “40 take Wyler.”
And there are those at the opposite end - John Ford and Clint Eastwood were known for only one or two takes per scene.
One of my favorite Kubrick films. Fail Safe has a very similar plot, but treats it in a deadly serious manner. A good contrast to this movie.
These two make a great double feature.
TV Guides synopsis of the movie Fail Safe was "Dr. Strangelove without the laughs".
Military here! Most of us love this movie. A masterpiece. Since 1964 people have been having the same conversations when reviewing this film as you guys had.
I was in SAC Security during the Cold War. 1983 - '87. The security of nuclear loaded B-52s was our mission. Being around those planes and protecting them was a pretty stressful job.
Y'all not worried about the dude that loves Putin, and other strongmen like that?
@@clash79the guy that while he was President, Putin DID NOT invade any countries unlike his predecessor and first successor. Nope. Sleep like baby knowing he’s back in power.
@@curtischase2126 the guy who took Putin's word over our own intelligence agencies? And announced that publicly? Sure, we'll be fine
@@curtischase2126 you have to admit that Putin wanted Trump to win, and you should damn sure be suspicious of the reason that is so
The bomber (Slim Pickens) pilot was the henchman in Blazing Saddles.
He was also Hollis Wood in 1941, another funny war film.
@@katenunyabizness9221I really loved him in that part. Why don’t more people react to 1941, an absolute classic.
HORRYWOOD!!
He changed his name when he left his estranged family. Originally Major Harvest.
@@fredfinks His brother went as Easy Pickens.
Burt Lindley, Jr. was a stalwart in B westerns and an honest-to-god bronco and bull rider. The story is that his father forbid the teenaged Pickens from competing in the rodeo, but he went behind his back. While he was trying to figure out what name to use to sign up so his dad wouldn't find out, the rodeo boss told him it didn't matter because it would be "slim pickings" as far as prize money. The teenager supposedly said, "That'll do," registered as Slim Pickens, and won $400.00 that afternoon. You can see a clip of him riding (and roping and then threatening to hit a woman!) at ruclips.net/video/L1WCbQVV0TA/видео.htmlsi=spwgSP9qaysrnPXx .
It should be noted that General Ripper was merely collecting all the radios from base personnel. He didn't want them to hear that there was nothing going on.
You're right, Mrs. Movies, this is VERY dark comedy. I've heard it said that Dr. Strangelove is at the same time both the funniest *and* the most terrifying movie ever made.
It’s not terrifying at all if you learn how to love the bomb!
lol dark humor is good but this is not dark enough in my opinion to be considerd dark, dark light maybe heh
@@neogeo1670 Everyone has different standards for what they find dark.
Wait until you see A Clockwork Orange.
LOL
Viddy well...
@@louisferdinandceline3016 Not this noche........
"Come and get one in the yarbles. If you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou!"
@@Ivarrtheboneless yassssss
Tracy Reed as Miss Scott, General Turgidson's secretary and mistress, the film's only female character. She also appears as "Miss Foreign Affairs", the Playboy Playmate in Playboy's June 1962 issue, which Major Kong is shown perusing at one point.
That wasn't Tracy Reed, that was Peter Sellers. His acting was just THAT GOOD!
@@InjuredRobot.
You see you sound like one of those deviated preverts.🤪🤪
@@InjuredRobot.😂😂
@@InjuredRobot. 😂😂 that's funny.
@InjuredRobot 👍But seriously, that was Foreign Affairs magazine draped over her derrière. I believe Miss Reed insisted on that minimal coverage.
I know Russian. The Ambassador says "What?! The doomsday device? No! Maybe could... ? "
The abruptness of the ending is the work of a mad genius -- And his name was Spike Milligan. The long time friend and collaborator of Sellers suggested it to Kubrick when the original ending (a massive food fight) wasn't working.
And it bookends the opening title sequence perfectly.
Spike was a comic genius.
The shot of Maj. Kong riding the bomb was so iconic posters of it were sold in poster shops into the 1980s.
And made fun of on other media, particularly The Simpsons back when people actually liked that show.
This truly is a dark comedy classic and George C Scott is pure comic genius!
In truth, the genius was Stanley Kubrick. George C. Scott resisted the over the top performance that Kubrick wanted from his character. Most of the takes used in the film were takes which Scott hated. (And of course, Peter Sellers in his multiple characters was (as always) amazing.)
Glad you noticed the intimacy of the two planes in the beginning. The background music was "Try a Little Tenderness" @17:55, the pilot, after reading the list containing lipstick and nylons (for trade), he says "Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff" his lips don't say Vegas, they say Dallas. (the pilot is a proud Texan). Dallas was the original shoot but was dubbed Vegas before the release of the movie, shortly after the recent assassination in Dallas.
Not just overt sexual symbolism, but there is a covert sexual symbolism in the dialogue, too.
I always get a laugh at the beginning how Kubrick made it look like the B-52 refueling is an act of romance.
Well, they pass on essence…
Once you start noticing all the sex metaphors and the phallic symbols, you begin to think maybe Kubrick is saying something about war. A few years later, Irene Ryan had the killer line in the musical "Pippin": "I think men raise war flags when they can't get anything else up."
after this movie every B-52 Air Craft Commander had a cowboy hat to fly with.
The nylons & lipstick were actual standard issue. If the crew had to bail out over enemy territory, it gave them something they could trade with that was small, lightweight, and not easily accessible to locals in many parts of the world.
Chewing gum, chocolate and cigarettes were also given as standard issue in the survival packs.. mainly to trade. Gave the pilots a fighting chance if the locals they encountered were friendly
True. In case of mass destruction, currency is useless. You would need some barter items in order to survive. The humor in this, of course, is those items listed are from WW2 and would probably not be particularly valuable in the USSR. If your country is destroyed, why would you desire gum and nylon stockings?
Airbursts are for non-hardened targets, Groundbursts are for hardened targets....
Yep. They originally planned to hit Laputa with an airburst, but trying to damage ICBMs in silos really needs a ground burst, which is why the crew were changing the settings on the bomb from 10,000' to 0'.
The faces on Mrs. Are priceless
@@Philistine47 Its a goof though, in a deleted scene it was said that the hatches were open and the missiles had emerged for a spring clean wash.
Being a person who served in the Navy during the Gulf War, I'll say that this movie is a classic. Love this movie and never get tired of watching it.
Thank you for this Veteran’s Day reaction from a US Air Force Cold War Veteran. While stationed on a B-52 base in 1976, a group of us watched this movie and we all thought it was both funny and frightening because we all realized how close to reality it actually was.
Earliest James Earl Jones i can remember
Yup...his first movie role. 💯
RIP
He also played Barney Hill, the famous alien abductee, along with his wife Betty Hill, in a dramatisation called 'the UFO incident'.
FYI, the same year (1964) there was a much more serious film made about the exact same subject (accidental nuke war started by the U.S.). That movie was called Fail Safe and it starred Henry Fonda as the President. That movie will really make you think. It's a must watch. In that movie, Moscow was destroyed and in order to avoid a total nuclear war, the President had to drop a nuke on New York. It was truly terrifying. Strangelove did better at the box office however.
Isn't it interesting that in both "Fail Safe" and "Dr. Strangelove" the U.S. President suggests Adlai Stevenson rather John Kennedy? (The source novel for "Fail Safe" makes it clear that the President is a second-term Kennedy, most likely in the year 1967.)
If you look closely at Slim Pickens's lips as he remarks that a fellow could have a pretty good time in Vegas with the contents of the survival kit, you'll see that it's not completely in sync with the dialogue. This is because the original city was "Dallas," and after the murder of the President, it was hastily changed to Las Vegas.
I remember only seeing it once on the TV. EVER,
I think it''s somehow adorable that Mrs. Movies is so touched by the very dark and serious basic topic of the movie, that she couldn't really enjoy the dark comedy and satire. You have to have your heart at the right place.
My heart got in the right place about 22:00 hours, on 5/11/24.
Kubrick brilliantly uses very dark comedy to illustrate the utter madness and absurdity of the concept of nuclear war.........this movie is masterful, brilliant, chilling and terrifying.......it's near-perfect.......
This is the best comedy I’ve ever seen in my life. This is one of the films I’d say is essentially perfect. The writing, direction is excellent and the acting is outstanding, plus this film includes the film debut of James Earl Jones. Peter Sellers should have won the Academy Award for this film, his three performances are top tier, as is the rest of the cast, but he’s the obvious standout of the cast. He was also supposed to be Slim Pickens character, but there conflicting stories as to why he didn’t play the character from him having an accident where he sprained his ankle and one where he faked having a sprained ankle to get out of playing four characters in the film. This film should have won the other Oscars it was up for, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. This is a great film and I’m glad you both have watched this. Hope you two are doing well, please take care and have a great day!
As you know, the Premier loves surprises.
I believe that was true of Khrushchev, who was Soviet Premier at the time.
surprising others rather than being surprised lol !
"Vera, Vera... What has become of you? Remember when you said that we would meet again, some sunny day?"
I think this was a sarcastic version of "Fail-Safe". I used to live near Syracuse, NY and while passing Rome, NY we would watch the B-52's taking off and landings. Thank You. US Navy USS Yellowstone AD-27 02/69 - 11/70.
This was an anti-war movie, so if say it is supposed to be uncomfortable.
6:50 "If he's going down, he's wearing his cowboy hat."
Indeed.
Called it early. Lol spoiler alert
Actually, he didn't wear his hat while going down. He waved it around triumphantly.
If you look at the war room scene where Strangelove is talking to the president from his chair, you can see the actor playing the Russian ambassador trying to stop himself from laughing. FYI, The first Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber flew in April 1952. The B-52 was designed in 1948 by the Boeing Company and first delivered to the military in 1955...its still in service today. Stanley Kubrick was worried about an FBI investigation when it was shown the prop cockpit of the B-52 bomber used in the film Dr Strangelove was almost exactly like the real thing...The B-52 was classified as state-of-the-art at the time of the film release.
The B-52 is the old battle horse that keeps on going. It's going to remain in service until 2050.
My uncle flew B-52's over Vietnam and for SAC in the 70s. He stayed with SAC but moved over to the B1 during the 80s. Serious business.
And the reason they allowed the film to still air was to avoid inadvertently confirming the accuracy of his movie's depiction of them!
You young folks probably weren't around during the Cold War. We were constantly told nearly every day that the ''big one'' could happen any day. Either by someone jumping the gun, saying the wrong thing or some computer glitch. This movie is dark, accurate but it's also funny. It broke the tension in those days.
That whole sequence when the President (Peter Sellers) was talking to the Soviet Premiere was ad-libbed by Sellers. And the actor playing the Soviet Ambassador was having a tough time staying character and not laughing.
"Peace is our Profession" was a real sign on USAF bases. We had them on ours. Our Security squadron was called the "Peacekeepers" and we had armored vehicles that were called Peacekeepers.
We always talked about something going wrong with the Bomb.
... The Bomb, Dmitry.
...The *Hydrogen* *Bomb* ...
Mrs. Movies was squirming all through this movie. I could see that Kubrick was in her head, measuring the room for new carpet and curtains. Every face palm was a tell that she was consciously absorbing each scene as intended by the director and comedy or no comedy, her intelligence, once ensnared, would not let her run away from such a unique and artful dark satirical attack on her emotional well being.
I'm a veteran and I think this film is hilarious. It depicts how conflicting rules & orders can bring about problems or disasters. My dad was in the Air Force and after his team replaced a bad engine on a plane some officer told them to replace it, would not take any comments so they took the good engine off as ordered.
When Reagon went nuts and pushed provoking the Soviets further and further the spies in Russia panicked and called him, that whatever they do, they should stop, because the soviets thought they would indeed prepare for a first strike against them and fueled their rockets and bomber...
Cuba crisis, when the USA started to 'bomb' soviet submarines to force to to emerge, one of the nuclear armed(!) submarines had the real discussion on board, that when the US ships attacked them, the war has started and the should use the nuclear arsenal to obliterate the whole fleet. It was 2vs1 leading officers for this first, but the one against managed to persuade the others to emerge and communicate with Moscow first.
That's just two of the examples we know of...
I have encountered veterans who appreciate the attention given to the details of the cockpit.
Fun fact, kubrick actually filmed in a b52, the skills he picked up in close quarters cramped set enabled him to secretly stow away on the apollo mission and film the moon landing.
The FBI contacted them, as the interior of the B52s was secret. However, as it's essentially a (complex) Bomber, they configured the layout as per a logical format (or at least, that's what they told the investigators).
The perfect double feature is to watch Fail Safe (1964, Henry Fonda! Woo!), the order does not matter, just the two films together.
Same year too... JFK pushed for the military to cooperate in the making of Fail Safe, written by "Eugene Leonard Burdick (December 12, 1918 - July 26, 1965) was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of The Ugly American (1958), Fail-Safe (1962), and author of The 480 (1965)"
Ironically, Dom Deluise, best known in comic roles, appears in "Fail Safe", definitely the "serious" one of these two movies!
Well _I_ say the order matters a great deal! Or wouldn't only a morose pessimist _want_ *Fail Safe* to be the _second_ half of a double feature? 😵
The movie started out as a serious project but when Kubrick was developing the screenplay he realized the whole situation of the military and cold war was so absurd he decided to make it a dark comedy.
Flouride is actually found naturally in many water sources, but a lot of communities add extra fluoride to help prevent tooth decay. In the U.S., the recommended level is about 0.7 mg per liter, which is thought to be just right for keeping our teeth healthy. If you’re curious about the levels in your area, you can usually check with your local water utility, they often have that info available
This may be dated come RFK Jr.'s appointment.
@@mainmac Sickening that we didn't learn the movie's lesson.
We had a head of USAF, General Curtis LeMay ... in 1962, who wanted to first strike the Soviet Union.
In Lemays defence, he wanted to first strike everyone. Twice
@@Thudsrayz "defense"
@@Thudsrayz John Kennedy said: "If you have to go, you want LeMay in the lead bomber. But you never want LeMay deciding that you have to go."
Selecting him as his running mate in 1968 did George Wallace's third party candidacy no real favors.
@charlessperling7031 there's a very good history podcast series called the bomber mafia by Malcolm Gladwell. Harrowing tho
Sterling Hayden, Jack D Ripper, was also the crooked cop in godfather, but before that, he was in the forerunner of the CIA fighting in World War II behind enemy lines. Guy was a big war hero, but went anonymous because of the nature of his work
Both General Ripper and General Turgedson were based on General Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay, head of SAC who was known for smoking cigars and for being a super-hawk.
Turgidson was based upon General LeMay but Ripper's character was more closely aligned with General Power, particularly the insanity.
"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" My favorite line.
Dont worry, our precious bodily fluids are gonna be protected now by RFK jr
Can't wait until the American people's pineal glands are decalcified! Gonna be LIT!
"You're kooky if you talk about it..." oh poor misguided lady.
Yes! he plans to end Flouridation!
You can't end flouridation, this is the internet!
RFK, Jr. is a dead ringer for General Jack D. Ripper.
Always loved the scene "Has he got a chance?!?! HELL YEAH...eh..."
Few films catch the utter insanity of the cold war. There are aspects of the humor that can only be understood by Gen X and older. A true masterpiece. The comic genius of Peter Sellers is fully realized in this film.
💯
Some of us at the very front end of Millennial remember it too, but things were definitely winding down fast by the late 80s so it drops off within a few years. Big difference between the 'xennials' and the rest of the generation.
@@KithKanan64 Thanks for filling in that part of the puzzle. I was' not sure if Xennials were old enough for it to have settled in. I was born in 1968 but have zero memories of the era. While I have plenty of earlier memories, I'd guess my first memories of lived history would be 1976's Ford vs Carter Election and that's because I played Ford in a mock school election. As with Ford, I went down in flames.
@@childlessdoggentleman746 yeah, I'm sure it depends. I grew up in a town with a lot of hippies and anti-nuclear protest so I remember being brought to a production of "peace child the musical" and scared out of my mind by the thought of nuclear war sometime in the mid-80s when I was still in pre-school or kindergarten at the latest.
Even without an experience like that though, other friends of the same age remember the cold war. I think some of Reagan's evil empire talk and the escalating tensions of the first half of the 80s must linger in our minds even if we weren't old enough to consciously remember them.
In the early 70s, I read "War Game" by a British film maker named Peter Watkins. It's about how WWlll could start and how a society will fall apart in its aftermath. Later, in the 80s, I had the opportunity to watch the 1967 pseudo-documentary it was based upon. It's nightmarish in its realism. A must for anyone who wants to know more what it was like to grow up during those decades.
Reagan asked where the War Room was. He said he saw it in Dr Strangelove.
Reagan saw the movie Wargames, and wondered if the real NORAD was as cool as it was on screen.
@timmooney7528 he wanted Rambo dropped into Afghanistan too.
@@timmooney7528 is it?
"Fail Safe" from the same year will ramp up your anxiety, but a must...
Peter Sellers released a cover of the Beatles "She Loves You Yea Yea Yea" as Dr Strangelove. Iconic. This movie was James Earl Jones film debut.
Others may have already said this, but Slim Pickens was never told (until afterwards) that this was a satire and played all of his scenes as straight up serious. You can tell this if you watch his scenes and mask out the comedic aspect of them. His acting was 100% serious.
In my opinion, this is as close to a Perfect Movie as is possible.
Satire is best played straight. 😂
The same formula worked for "Airplane!"
@@Nasty-Canasta Which actor thought it was serious and how in God's name could they!?
@@GeraldWalls Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and I think Leslie Nielsen. They were all serious, drama actors and were told to play their parts straight. It didn't make sense to them until the movie was finished. It's what got Nielsen to start doing the Naked Gun movies
@@Nasty-Canasta Oh, yeah, they PLAYED their roles straight but they _had_ to know it was a comedy. Nielsen had the growing nose prosthesis, Bridges had the "picked the wrong day to stop xxx" lines, and Stack had the immortal "Have you ever seen a grown man naked" line while sitting beside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Slim Pickens literally did not know the movie was a comedy. All of his scenes were serious in nature, until Riding the Bomb...
In the scene with George C. Scott where he fell down and then hopped back up, it was unplanned. Kubrick decided to leave it in. Great satire film.
"Peace is Our Profession" was the official motto of USAF Strategic Air Command until the end of the Cold War.
Even though the movie was shot in Black and White, Kubrick insisted that the war room table be covered in green felt to resemble a poker table. The idea was that the politicians were playing games with the world.
Two comments: First, there is a fine line between tragedy and comedy and this movie walks that line perfectly. Secondly, this is a parody of another movie worth watching called Fail-Safe that treats this exact scenario seriously.
Fail Safe came the same year as this and was a more serious movie about a similar incident (minus the doomsday machine).
Even more efficient anti nuke movies that got people to wake up to the horrors of nuclear war were the TV movies The Day After (1983) and Threads (1984). The Day After takes place in and around Lawrence, Kansas. Threads takes place in Sheffield, England.
'Threads: It's Grimmer Up North' is definitely worth a watch. ;-)
There is also On the Beach (1959, remade for TV in 2000) post a northern hemisphere war and the people in the south are living as much life as usual while knowing the radiation that is slowly covering the whole of the earth will be fatal when it arrives.
I believ3 this and "Fail Safe" are based off the same short story.
When Dr. Strangelove beats on his arm you can see the Russian ambassador smirk and break character.
The sister movie you should watch is Fail Safe (1964). However, I'd take some time in between this movie and Fail Safe as Fail Safe is a more dramatic movie.
To put this movie into context,you have to see the movie it was taken from the 1964 Failsafe starring Henry Fonda,Walter Matthau,Larry Hagman.
It's based on the book Red Alert.
Strangelove was first, and there were lawsuits between the movie studios, claiming Fail Safe plagiarized Strangelove.
The key element to constructing a doomsday weapon is to let people know there is one! So true.
Boy, I wish WE had one of those Doomsday Machines!
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 The Dead Hand is real. It was about to obliterate NATO, especally NATO emperor USA after a first strike, to make it impossible that they could succeeed with that.
Could still be active, wouldn't be much of surprise.
And no, we got ZERO chance to intercept that.
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 don't wanna fall behind in the Doomsday Machine gap.
Greatest satire movie ever! And what should be terrifying is that when Daniel Ellsberg originally saw this in the theater, he stated that what he'd seen was essentially a documentary.
In spite of the disclaimer, it’s hard not to think of such real people as Curtis LeMay, Adlai Stevenson, Werner von Braun, etc. It’s also funny to see what used to be a strong password. And it also brings to mind the line from THE RIGHT STUFF: “Our Germans are better than their Germans.” Also look for the call-back graffiti in RAISING ARIZONA.
"The Fog of War" 2004 - Errol Morris documentary.
Yea, I laughed when I noticed that on the bathroom door in Raising Arizona, another great flick
It still is a strong password. If you're limited in time when its functional, and the speed at which it can be resubmitted.
@@mainmac Alas, there is no shortage of hackers who are not thus constrained, so websites are typically much more stringent in their password complexity standards.
The real test to see if you like Kubrick is A Clockwork Orange. That movie is both his most approachable and most impenetrable at the same time from an enjoyability level.
Approachable? WTF are you talking about? I'm assuming you have to be sarcastic, but, it's so dry a response, I'm not 100% sure...
I get not quite being ready for full on Stanley Kubrick but he was such a genius filmmaker. Took his time with each project. All unique to the last one and the next one and the next one. A perfectionist and a master cinematographer
I'll grant you he's a fantastic cinematographer and perfectionist, but he was a poor director, horrible at handling his actors and failed to ever get humane reactions out of them. It served him well in certain circumstances but in general it's a big hole in his directing performance, and he'd have done better working alongside an accomplished director as co-collaborator, I suspect. There is a reason many people appreciate his cinematography, but dislike his overall style.
Although he always knew he would shoot the movie in black and white, Kubrick had the top of the war room table painted the color green felt to give the subliminal image of a poker table as they were gambling with the future of the planet.
Peter Sellers although an awful human being was an incredible actor.
His movie “Being There” is a timeless classic that few have reacted to.
Did you know peter sellers?
@
No, just watch his biography.
Thanks God is flouride is not controversial anymore.
Lolz
He says, as his pineal gland slowly calcifies...😂
California just won a court case against the government to remove flouride from tap water.
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 fully flourified
Having a mad man in control of the US's nuclear arsenal doesn't sound so funny anymore.
Survived having a dementia patient.
@@lawrencegoughHis "Red button" just summons a nurse with ice cream, clean Depends, and a six year old little girl.
@@lawrencegough TRUMP DID NOT HAVE DEMENTIA WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT
@@lawrencegough True enough, Reagan wasn't all there by the end.
@@lawrencegoughYeah, but that was 36 years ago.
"in all 4 I felt extremely uncomfortable"
weeeeeell I think we'll skip "A Clockwork Orange" then... 🤣🤣🤣
Sterling Hayden who played General Jack Ripper also played the cop who broke Michael Corleone's jaw in The Godfather.
In the past we called it 'gallows humour'.
Consider that most people were able to ignore that in theory we lived with the threat of nuclear annihilation for several decades. The world could end at any time with little warning.
And if you think this movie is not so negative and you think you can stand worse?
'The Day after' (1983)
'When the wind blows' (1986) - animated
'Barfoot Gen' (1983) - anime
Fair warning, none of them are for the faint of heart.
You forgot Threads
On the Beach (1959)
One of My favorite Dark. Comedy Cold War thriller movies ever made!
Peace is our profession. It really was the motto of the Strategic Air Command.
I think General Ripper is an inspiration to RFK Jr.
They don't recognize Ripper's references to our "bodily fluids" as a take on the debate about fluoridation of the water supply in the 1950s-60s.
And now in 2024! 😢
Sadly people fall for the conspiracy stuff
"It's a sight, Mr. President! A BIG plane like '52!"
Peter Sellers was in another movie "The Mouse That Roared' it's also about a nuclear confrontation.
Sellers plays several characters in that as well. The best single actor in multiple roles in a movie is Alec Guinness in "Kind Hearts and Coronets."
Oliver Stone showed this movie to Putin when he interviewed him in 2015. Putin didn't seem to get the humor, but said it was an important film and a warning to the leaders of both countries, especially now because the weapons are even more high-tech.
It's more enjoyable on rewatches knowing that there's no hope at all
Coca Cola company is never going to get reimbursed for that property damage.
0:37 cheers and thanks. Kubrick and Peter sellers an absolute force. 3 roles. I've done that once. It was fun
The crazy general's name is Jack T. Ripper
Jack *D.* Ripper, but it sounds essentially the same.
More fun with names: Col. 'Bat' Guano.
@@wwoods66 Yep, a great movie!
This movie was myu first introduction to Peter Sellers and Slim Pickens and I have loved all their work thru the years.
One of the funniest movies ever made (and the ending being unscripted makes it even better)
7:35 "Miss Scott" happens to also be "Miss Foreign Affairs"- the centrefold in the Playboy magazine Major Kong was reading on the B-52.
(Yes he was "reading" Playboy specifically for the articles. 😆 )
Navy Veteran here. Most military people I know have a dark humor side and find the situations portrayed here as hilarious (as there are some parallels to this with our actual jobs). As for the bomber crew they were hell bent to do their job, and having spent my time in the military on a ballistic missile submarine in the 1980s, there was no doubt we would launch those weapons with almost 200 total warheads if ordered to do so. After all, most of the crew's family lived in base housing some 1-2 miles away from the strategic stockpile of thousands of nuclear warheads (primary Soviet target) so we assumed the family members would die in the opening salvo. That was incentive enough to pull the trigger if required.
What you probably don't know is that in the same year there was another film released called "Failsafe". In the broad strokes, it's basically very much the same story, but from a completely straight, dramatic perspective.
Bat Guano was played by Keenan Wynn, who was usually a comic second banana in the old musicals, and was a fair song and dance man: ruclips.net/video/bPduoU826ew/видео.html
The first time I saw this movie, on broadcast tv, my mom described the plane sequences as "American ingenuity gone mad."
Wynn is very moving as Mr. Green in "Nashville" (1975). He acted with his father, the clown Ed Wynn, in several movies, among them the unfairly neglected "Great Man" (1956).
If you think this one is dark, watch "Fail Safe"
I always recommend "Fail Safe" to go with it.
I think it’s important to recognize just when this film came out…the peak of the Cold War
Please check out Peter Sellers' last movie, "Being There" Another classic!
One of the best reactions of a movie. Good job! And thank you Mr. Kubrick!