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

When this was made, it was very much of it's time and quite accurate. With Reds under beds and paranoia at it's highest level until The Bay Of Pigs incident & The Cuban Missile Crisis, this movie fitted the time it was made. The height of The Cold War and neither side looked like backing down made this film what it was then. Sadly now with the fall of the USSR, Glasnost and the ACE treaty this could never happen. B-52's no longer circle in constant readiness having been superseded by ICBM's and even those are constantly being disarmed.

The entire plot revolves around the idea that one rogue US General decides to start World War 3 all by himself by issuing irrevocable orders. This is of course ridiculous as the only thing required to stop the very slow Bombers is to scramble very fast Fighter jets after them and blow the Bombers out of the sky which would be done as soon as The Pengtagon found they were unable to communicate with the Bombers to recall them. They would willingly sacrifice their own Bombers rather than risk a full scale nuclear war. The 1st mistake is a General wouldn't command a Wing, it would be a Colonel. The US equivalent rank of Mandrake would be a Colonel. The 2nd mistake is General Ripper telling Group Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellars) to implement Plan R for Robert (when he should say Romeo and an officer of his experience should have known that). Mandrake should have refused to follow the order for that reason alone (Incorrect procedure). Fortunately the actors in the plane do NOT make the same mistake.

Likewise General Turgison's phone conversation with Colonel Puntridge is a mistake as it would never take place over an insecure line with the topic they are discussing. Ripper's tannoy to the base is also incorrect (no matter what, he would never say "Commie" over a tannoy, he'd more likely say "The Enemy"). Mandrake soon finds out there is no state of war by listening to his own radio and goes to see what's happening. Kong's message over the flight intercom telling all the men about the radio frequency is wrong. Each man has those orders printed in front of him and would know that frequency from them, him telling them over the intercom risks that frequency being overheard. Likewise he would not give the target over the frequency or warhead yield for the same reason.

The Plan R they discuss in the war room is now an outdated concept since the introduction of ICBM's as they are programmed to fire without human operators to give MAD (mutally assured destruction). An Army Unit is ordered to take Ripper's base and put him in contact with the War Room, the base troops of course think anyone attacking are Russians in disguise because of what Ripper told them (another ridiculous idea). The Russians reveal their Doomsday machine and it is explained to the US President (Peter Sellars) by Dr Strangelove (Peter Sellars). In the shots where Rippers office is being shot at there are several times where Ripper should be hit and killed. After his men surrender, Ripper shoots himself to make sure the recall codes can't be found and the Bombers can't be bought back.

Now, if the missile that was fired at Kong's B-52 was a nuke, it would have been unable to finish it's mission once it detonated (even though it didn't actually hit them). The EMP would have destroyed all the on-board electronics forcing the B-52 to land. This destroys the radio and the B-52 can now no longer communicate with the outside world (the pilot should have immediately stood down from his mission). The B-52 Navigator is played by James Earl Jones in his 1st ever movie role. The recall code is given (having been worked out by Mandrake from a note on Ripper's desk) and acknowledged by 30 planes and with 4 shot down all planes are accounted for until The Russians admit 1 plane may have only been damaged (Kong's B-52). When they discover they don't have enough fuel to even hit their primary target, Kong's B-52 should turn back but Kong is determined to hit any target no matter what and diverts to an ICBM complex at Kodlos (now if The Russians were using ICBM's what was the point of the Americans using B-52's which were much slower?). A really huge mistake is Kong ordering an air-burst attack but then setting detonation altitude at zero feet (or ground level, so hardly an air-burst!).

On finding the bomb doors have failed Kong has yet ANOTHER reason to to stand down (especially after both manual opening fails and explosive opening fails) but doesn't. By refusing to stand down by this point Kong far exceeded any field authority he had as Captain. His co-pilot, navigator and bombardier should have all ordered him to stand down and in fact relieved him of his command for refusing to do so. Now without this film Dark Star would not exist and Alien would have never been made.

The height the bomb was dropped from it would never have time to arm itself. The ending of discussing how to continue life in mine shafts (there must have been a huge section cut where they said the Doomsday Device went off) and the shots of all the nuclear bombs is a very weak ending indeed in a generally bad film which isn't funny and hasn't stood the passage of time well at all.