John Ford liked to shoot outdoors, David Lean must have been one of those people who liked to hear himself talk because his movies never end and Alfred Hitchcock was all about voyeurism and blondes in tight clothes. In the case of Stanley Kubrick it appears that guy was as all over the map as my mp3 player on shuffle. There is no genre specification, in fact I don’t even know if you could assign genres to his pictures. “A Clockwork Orange” is very serious and intense while “Dr. Strangelove” is purely comedic and satirical. In fact the only connection I can make between the few Kubrick films I have seen is a sort of anti-authoritarian message.
“Dr. Strangelove” is as outlandishly absurd as it is eerily prophetic. It manages to accurately predict events that would later transpire though it appears it was simply trying to depict a society that was beyond anything we could ever experience in real life. Most importantly though, it speaks to me on a very personal level- by finding humor in very grim subject matter.
A narration that implies a documentary tone opens the film over images of a snow-covered continent (possibly implying some kind of geological disaster). The monotone voice summarizes all the fears instilled into people during the Cold War; Russian doomsday devices, nuclear holocausts and secret weapons experiments. The first of many subtle and intelligent jokes manifests itself as handwritten, almost childlike opening credits superimpose themselves over the gloomy imagery. This tool seems to suggest that the people tasked with an important responsibility, like making a film still resort to childish tactics and lazy shortcuts, likely an analogy to world leaders and military officials- particularly the ones featured in this film.
The first, General Jack D. Ripper (ha ha) is initially shown as a super-patriotic, very well decorated soldier. However, as the film progresses it becomes evident that he is completely insane. Ripper initiates a special emergency command to launch an air raid on Russia, which is only supposed to exist as a contingency plan in the event that the Commander-in-Chief and his immediate subordinates have been killed and a lower officer has to order the nuke strike. Ripper is frequently depicted as sexually inadequate, which explains his obsessive need for military dominance (a constantly upward pointing cigar, a machine gun he holds at waist level and his constant reference to the Soviets threatening their “precious bodily fluids.”) Even his name alone implies sexual shortcomings, as it harkens back to a serial killer who preyed on prostitutes. Though Ripper simply suspects the Russians are planning to fluoridate America’s drinking water, it turns out they are actually building a nuclear device of their own, meaning the attack on their country would set off a nuclear disaster.
Another element of comedic irony in this film is the depiction of the lower-ranking troops. An English officer, Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers, in one of his 3 roles in the movie), takes the initial order from Ripper and executes all his commands from a military installation which has a hilarious billboard looming over it bearing the reminder that “Peace is our Profession.” Also, the supposedly “elite” squad of bomber pilots who lead the attack without question are a bunch of seemingly juvenile simpletons, none more so than the pilot “King” Kong (Slim Pickens). The last in the slew of incompetent military officials introduced is General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) who is basically an unflattering caricature of the role he would later become famous for, General George Patton. He is not only easily manipulated by his “secretary” (think Bill/Monica here) but is generally oafish and the most immature of all the characters.
In a futuristic looking bunker known as The War Room, which seems to clearly be the influence for the Command Center on the Death Star, President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again) and all his top-ranking advisors discuss their limited possibilities. Muffley acts annoyed and even reprimands Turgidson for letting something so catastrophic happen on his watch, but still comes across as a spineless pushover who does not have the respect of his own staff. Almost every piece of dialogue that occurs in The War Room is riddled with irony, sarcasm and hilarity.
“I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops, depending on the breaks.” (Gen. Buck Turgidson “Dr. Strangelove”)
The primary irony of the film, as well as one of the most clairvoyant, is the fact that all the “safeguards” meant to prevent a nuclear disaster in fact do fail. Nobody can figure out the mysterious three-digit “Go-Code” to abort the strike, the people tasked with being able to prevent such a calamity are basically clueless, and of course technological glitches come into play as well. The revelations made by the characters in The War Room speak volumes about their personal character; Turgidson’s cold estimates of number of Soviet deaths in question and President Muffley’s tail-between-the-legs phone call to the Russian President are among the highlights of the film.
Muffley’s weakness is driven home when it is revealed that he consults with (almost to the point of taking orders from) a wheelchair-bound, Nazi-inspired scientist/weapons expert Dr. Strangelove (Sellers to the third power). The Strangelove character is obviously central to the storyline and also puts an exclamation point on the satirical elements of the film, going so far as to imply that U.S. weapons of mass destruction are essentially born of Nazism, however, I feel like his “haunted hand” shtick and other physical comedy bits really cheapen the intellect of the film, as they play far too much into the low-brow slapstick genre.
In the waning moments of the film, Kong’s plane drops a bomb (which he gleefully rides like a mechanical bull) on a Russian nuclear reactor, triggering explosions all over the world. The implication that all the other countries were secretly working on nuclear doomsday devices, in this day and age of Iran and North Korea, is one of those things you can’t help but laugh at because if you actually thought about the ramifications, you would probably want to kill yourself. The film ends with the destruction of the world, which is really the be-all-end-all of film endings because, really, what else can happen after that storyline wise?
“Dr. Strangelove” has been a pure joy to watch and reflect on, if nothing else for the sheer comedic value of George C. Scott’s exaggerated physical and facial mannerisms. I had originally thought of him as a very limited, typecast actor, and though the character himself is not much different than some of his other depictions, I have to commend Scott’s gift of comedy which I was previously ignorant of. The rest of the film just makes me think Kubrick was some kind of genius given the frightening coincidences of human life being treated like commodities, the hypocrisy of the keeping of nuclear arms and of course the brutally hilarious lack of trust and respect that is bestowed upon our political leaders in the narrative.
No comments:
Post a Comment