Quick recap: General Ripper orders an air strike on Russia for no reason. As expected, it does not go well. Most of the movie takes place in the war room, as the president and his council attempt to get hold of the situation and recall the alert. Russia is understandably displeased and threatens to set off the doomsday device if they are bombed, ending all humanity as we know it. The movie switches back and forth between Dr.Ripper’s further descent into insanity and on one of the planes carrying the bomb.

Fun (?) Fact: Peter Sellers, who played three major rolls in the film, ad-libbed most of his lines. Kubrick later added the dialogue into the written screenplay.

Dr.Strangelove fighting with his own arm to keep from giving the president the Nazi salute

My thoughts: I don’t have much to say about this movie, unfortunately, for a few reasons. 1. It was directed by Kubrick and I love his ideas so I knew this would be amazing. And that it was. 2. What makes this movie so wonderful is its spot on satire of the cold war. I say ‘spot on’ based on my limited knowledge of the subject, since I wasn’t actually alive at the time. 3. Dr.Strangelove was truly hilarious so me adding anything insightful would just be fruitless. This movie filled in several holes of my pop culture wall. For example, the quote, ‘You can’t fight in here! This is the war room!’ is a line I had heard several times, but only now know where it came from. Same goes for the last scene of the movie, as the Major rides the bomb as if it were a bull in a rodeo. There were so many wonderful moments, but my absolute favorite was the first conversation the president had with the Russian Premier where he explains that the General went and did a ‘silly thing’. The movie is gold, but I’d watch it again for just that one scene.

Yet another Simpsons joke I can better appreciate now!

Final review: 4/5. I’d give it a perfect score, but I know that I missed so many jokes, based on my limited knowledge of the Cold War. That’s probably something I should change. I plan to rewatch this movie again in a year from now and see what I else I can pick up.

Where/how I watched it: Netflix DVD

Up next: High Society