Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray]

Director: Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick

Overview

In 1964, with the Cuban Missile Crisis fresh in viewers' minds, the Cold War at its frostiest, and the hydrogen bomb relatively new and frightening, Stanley Kubrick dared to make a film about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button -- and played the situation for laughs. Dr. Strangelove's jet-black satire (from a script by director Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, and Terry Southern) and a host of superb comic performances (including three from Peter Sellers) have kept the film fresh and entertaining, even as its issues have become (slightly) less timely. Loaded with thermonuclear weapons, a U.S. bomber piloted by Maj. T.J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens) is on a routine flight pattern near the Soviet Union when they receive orders to commence Wing Attack Plan R, best summarized by Maj. Kong as "Nuclear combat! Toe to toe with the Russkies!" On the ground at Burpleson Air Force Base, Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) notices nothing on the news about America being at war. Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) calmly informs him that he gave the command to attack the Soviet Union because it was high time someone did something about fluoridation, which is sapping Americans' bodily fluids (and apparently has something to do with Ripper's sexual dysfunction). Meanwhile, President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again) meets with his top Pentagon advisors, including super-hawk Gen. Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), who sees this as an opportunity to do something about Communism in general and Russians in particular. However, the ante is upped considerably when Soviet ambassador de Sadesky (Peter Bull) informs Muffley and his staff of the latest innovation in Soviet weapons technology: a "Doomsday Machine" that will destroy the entire world if the Russians are attacked.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/06/2021
UPC:	0043396546950
Original Release:	1964
Rating:	PG
Source:	Sony Pictures
Language:	English
Time:	1:35:00
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	9,245

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Peter Sellers	Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / D
George C. Scott	Gen. "Buck" Turgidson
Sterling Hayden	Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper
Keenan Wynn	Col. "Bat" Guano
Slim Pickens	Major T.J. "King" Kong
Peter Bull	Ambassador de Sadesky
Tracy Reed	Miss Scott
James Earl Jones	Lt. Lothar Zogg
Jack Creley	Mr. Staines
Frank Berry	Lt. H.R. Dietrich
Glenn Beck	Lt. W.D. Kivel
Shane Rimmer	Capt. G.A. `Ace' Owens
Paul Tamarin	Lt. B. Goldberg
Gordon Tanner	Gen. Faceman
Robert O'Neil	Adm. Randolph
Roy Stephens	Frank
Laurence Herder	Members of the Defense Team
John McCarthy	Members of the Defense Team
Hal Galili	Members of the Defense Team
Laurie Johnson	Composer

Technical Credits

Stanley Kubrick

Peter George

Terry Southern

Stanley Kubrick	Producer,Screenwriter,Director
Peter George	Screenwriter
Terry Southern	Screenwriter
Wally Veevers	Special Effects
Richard Bird	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Rarely does nihilistic humor bubble up so relentlessly as in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 masterpiece of political satire, Dr. Strangelove. The tale begins when Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a United States general who is as obsessed with the spread of communism as he is with the dangers of fluoridation, dispatches a flock of B-52's into Russia, putting the world inexorably on a path toward self-annihilation. Kubrick's early training as a photographer is evident, especially in his bold sense of visual composition. The film's cartoonish characters grease the scathing commentary on cold war buffoonery. George C. Scott blows hard as a posturing hawk of the Pentagon. Peter Sellers plays three characters, among them the bizarre title character -- a former Nazi war criminal turned White House consultant. And of course, there's Slim Pickens's cowboy kamikaze, who rides a missile rodeo style, whooping and hollering into oblivion.

Barnes & Noble - Monica McIntyre

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is widely regarded as the screen's greatest satire, a film that superbly encapsulates the fear and paranoia of the Cold War. There is not a sequence in the film in which the dialogue is not quotable -- indeed, there are so many well-remembered moments that viewers and critics will differ on the best, though surely the sight of Major Kong (Slim Pickens) waving his cowboy hat as he rides the bomb into oblivion is among the most enduring images of its era. As was consistently the case in his career, director Stanley Kubrick brilliantly matches actors with their roles, from Peter Sellers' three-character performance to the screen debut of James Earl Jones, whom Kubrick had spotted in a stage play. Similarly, George C. Scott, who plays the hawkish general Buck Turgidsdon, considered Strangelove among his greatest screen achievements. Every performance is top-notch, and many Kubrick trademarks can be found in the film, from the visual style to the shift to a hand-held camera when the Air Force base is attacked to the sparse and ironic use of music.

All Movie Guide - Richard Gilliam