I started my movie project with Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb. It’s a Stanley Kubrick movie from 1964 set during the Cold War. It’s a black comedy, satirizing the nuclear war scare, and it’s amazing. I really liked it. It’s really funny, and it’s really beautiful, which sounds a bit weird, because nuclear war, but the lighting is amazing, and the way it was shot was absolutely gorgeous.
The setting is basically that the US Air Force has a bunch of planes flying around Russia, loaded up with tons of hydrogen bombs, and they’re ready to attack if Russia were to attack the US. A US general, Ripper, suddenly gets it in his head that the US will not have the appropriate response time if Russia were to attack, and also he’s bonkers. He’s completely sure the Russians are polluting the Americans’ valued bodily fluids, which he talks about through the whole movie. Because he’s worried he launches a preemptive attack, a sequence of events which makes the 34 planes unreachable. The top ranking members of the US Government and US military quickly gather in the War Room in the Pentagon to find a solution. The president gets the Russian ambassador to call the Russian Prime Minister and they try to find a solution, and are told that the Russians have a Doomsday device that will deploy if an American bomb explodes in Russia, pretty much blowing up the planet.
It’s hilarious. It’s amazingly relevant considering it’s 50 years old. Not only are we worried about the bombs that could be falling, and with the wars, and the crazy, but some of the conspiracy theories also ring very true. It’s very; “they’re out to get us”. I also love the American President trying to move the blame around. Because essentially 34 planes are flying into Russia to blow them to high heaven, and the President is very: “Well I feel awful too. I know your country is in grave danger, but this is making me very upset, so please think about me too, dude, come on.” It’s great.
Also, the ending is fantastic. I feel like shouting spoilers, because I’m going to spoil the ending, so, SPOILERS. 30 of the planes are recalled, three of the planes are shot down and one plane gets through and a bomb drops. So the Doomsday device goes off. Dr. Strangelove tells the US government and military that they can probably survive, if they hide in old mine shafts. And the good Doctor, a German who defected, but his arm is still very German, says they should bring 10 women for every man, and the faces of fear suddenly turn to like: “this is fucking great” and it’s so good. They basically think: “the world might be blown up, but I could have 10 wives and do nothing for the next 30 years but bang them.” It’s so good.
There is so much awesomeness going on, and I loved it, so the Movie Project (I’ll come up with a better name) is off to a flying start. Whoop whoop. I’m lame.
I sort of tweeted my experience, and this is what I thought as I watched it.
