Top Ten Movies of the 1960s

#4
Dr. Strangelove:
Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb

1964
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden and Slim Pickens

If there's one thing that Dr. Strangelove shows, it's that when laughs are about things that also scare the hell out of you they are always better. The movie tells the story fanatic anti-communist general Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who takes advantage of extraordinary powers given to him and orders a full scale nuclear bombing attack on the Soviet Union. Once this is discovered, the American President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) and his advisers try everything to recall the bomber planes but have trouble because of their orders to turn off all of their communication. General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) is part of a group of Muffley's advisers who begin to press the President to back this initial order and turn it into a full scale attack. It sounds like thriller, and the original novel Red Alert actually was, but its actually a brilliant dark comedy. Writer Terry Southern described once that they were writing the script late at night and they couldn't hep but laugh at the gravity of the situation they were writing about: nuclear holocaust. So naturally they turned it into a comedy. The scene where Muffley calls the Soviet Premier is great, check it out:

You have to remember that this movie came out less than a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Soviet missiles had been discovered in Cuba and this was such a shock that the Kennedy Administration threatened war if they were not promptly removed. Now the US also had nuclear weapons in Turkey at the time but they didn't figure into the equation. The issue was settled and the missiles were removed but for thirteen days nuclear holocaust was a real possibility. Children at schools were taking preventative measures like those fail proof drills where they hide under their desks. If you were caught up in the moment you probably would have been scared. When you laugh though you aren't scared, it's physiologically impossible. Dr. Strangelove was a way to laugh in a time of intense fear.

The film addresses some real issues too. Although it was made in 1964, over a decade after McCarthyism, the movie pokes fun at extreme anti-communists through the character of General Ripper. Back in the day you could call somebody a communist and their credibility and livelihood would be immediately disappear. There was such paranoia that the comparison to the witch trials are so fittingly often used. Ripper is the personification of the hardcore anti-communist conspiracy theorist. Believing as he does that communists are infiltrating every sector of American society he sees no other option but to use a loophole in the chain of command to order an attack and wipe out the threat at its source in the Soviet Union. He sees himself like as the saviour of all things American and good...like ice cream. Him explaining his point of view to RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers in the second of his three roles) is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The brilliance of Kubrick's direction can be seen here with the low angle close-up as well. It's his trademark shot to get deep inside the mind of disturbed individuals (think Alex in A Clockwork Orange or Jack in The Shining). The seriousness makes you laugh even harder the more you watch it:

The next clip is a little later in the movie and shows the transformation of Ripper into the nut that he is at heart. Here the movie becomes less dark and more openly comedic:

More seriously though, Dr. Strangelove, exposes the holes in the strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) which the nuclear arms race is based on. This is the belief that any attack on one country with nuclear weapons would inevitably produce a counter-attack and thus lead both sides to total destruction. The theory of Deterrence then is used to deter any opposing state to attack for fear of a counter-attack. This was what the Cold War superpower battle was all about. It is argued by many of those in the realist school of International Relations that this is why the Cold War never led to a full-scale nuclear war but only resulted in smaller proxy wars (Greece, Korea, Vietnam, etc.). By way of Rational Choice and the Nash equilibrium both sides will attempt to avoid the worst possible outcome which is nuclear annihilation.

As the movie shows, the major problem with this theory is that people do not act rational all of the time. How many people do you know that are perfectly rational and act according to their best interests all the time? General Ripper was pushed to the edge with his paranoia and was able to order an attack on the Soviet Union. People can be influenced by dogmas which distort their reality. Thus the movie really raises some important questions about International Relations and American foreign policy. But again, it makes you laugh while at the same time making you think.

For being one of the most daring dark comedies out there and attacking dominant IR theory, in my opinion Dr. Strangelove is the 4th best movie of the 1960s.