Top 250 Challenge: 128* Dang it

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Number 20 on IMDb's Top 250
Nominated by Mick and Anonymous Ken

U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a "Doomsday Machine" which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the only person with access to the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, whose best attempts to divert disaster depend on placating a drunken Soviet Premier and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove, who concludes that "such a device would not be a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious". Will the bombers be stopped in time, will hilarity ensue, or will General Jack Ripper succeed in destroying the world?

Trivia: Peter Sellers was cast in four roles, but experienced problems when trying to develop a Texas accent for Major T. J. "King" Kong. After Sellers coincidentally broke his leg, Kubrick was forced to find another actor. Convinced that nobody could have acted the part as well as Sellers, Kubrick decided to cast someone who naturally fit the role. Remembering his work on the western One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Kubrick cast Slim Pickens as Kong, the gung-ho hick pilot determined to drop his bombs at any cost. Pickens was never shown the script nor told it was a black comedy; ordered by Kubrick to play it straight, he played the role as if it were a serious drama - with amusing results.

This is one of the best black comedies out there and is Kubrick at his twisted best. Sellers is perfect in his three roles, the proper british exchange officer, the meek President, and the psychotic science advisor and title character, but Slim Pickens and George C. Scott as General "Buck" Turgidson, the neurotic general who pretty much advocates killing all the Rooskies, you know, since the planes are already on their way, who really steal the show. "Well, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones." Thanks Mick and AK.

* The dynamic aspect of the top 250 list strikes again. This time I lost a movie, so that is the reason 128 was repeated.