User:AdamSmithee/Strangelove

Novel and screenplay

Kubrick started with nothing but a vague idea to make a thriller about a nuclear accident, building on the widespread Cold War fear for survival.^[1] While doing in-depth research for the planned film, Kubrick gradually became aware of the subtle and unstable "Balance of Terror" existing between nuclear powers and its intrinsic paradoxical character. At Kubrick's request, Alistair Buchan (the head of the Institute for Strategic Studies), recommended the thriller novel Red Alert (1958) by Peter George.^[2] Kubrick was impressed with the book, which had also been praised by game theorist and future Nobel Prize in Economics winner Thomas Schelling in an article written for the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" and reprinted in the "Observer" ^[3], and immediately bought the film rights^[4].

Kubrick, in collaboration with George, started work on writing a screenplay based on the book. While writing the screenplay, they benefited from some brief consultations with Schelling and, later, Herman Kahn.^[5] Following his initial intention and the tone of the book, Stanley Kubrick originally intended to film the story as a serious drama. However, as he later explained during interviews, the comedy inherent in the idea of Mutual assured destruction became apparent as he was writing the first draft of the film's script. Kubrick stated:

"My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay. I found that in trying to put meat on the bones and to imagine the scenes fully, one had to keep leaving out of it things which were either absurd or paradoxical, in order to keep it from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question."^[6]

After deciding to turn the film into a bleak comedy, Kubrick brought in Terry Southern as a co-writer. The choice was influenced by reading Southern's comic novel The Magic Christian (1959), which Kubrick had received as a gift from Peter Sellers.^[7]

The screenplay was put together by writers Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George (also writer of the novel), Peter Sellers (uncredited) and James B. Harris (also uncredited).

Sets and filming

Dr. Strangelove was filmed at Shepperton Studios, in London, as Peter Sellers was in the middle of a divorce at the time and, thus, unable to leave England^[8]. The sets occupied three main sound stages: the Pentagon War Room, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber and the last one containing both the motel room and General Ripper's office and outside corridor^[7]. The studio's buildings were also used as the military airport's exterior. The film's set design was done by Ken Adam, the famous production designer of several James Bond films (at the time, he had already worked on Dr. No). The black and white cinematography was done by Gilbert Taylor and editing by Anthony Harvey and Stanley Kubrick (uncredited).

For the War Room Ken Adam first designed a two level set which Kubrick initially liked, only to decide later that it is not what he wants. Adam next realized the design that was used in the film, an expressionistic set that was compared with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It was an enormous concrete room (130 feet long and 100 feet wide, with a 35-foot high ceiling^[4]) suggesting a bomb shelter, with a triangular shape (based on Kubrick's idea that this particular shape would proove the most resistent against an explosion). One side of the room was covered with gigantic strategic maps reflecting in a shiny black floor inspired by the dance scenes in old Fred Astaire films. In the middle of the room there was a large circular table lighted from above by a circle of lamps, suggesting a poker table. Kubrick insisted to cover the table with green felt (although this could not be seen in the black and white film) to reinforce the actors impression that they are playing "a game of poker for the fate of the world"^[9]. Kubrick asked Adam to build the set ceiling in concrete to force the director of photography to use for filming only the on-set lights from the circle of lamps. Moreover, each lamp in the circle of lights was carefully placed and tested until Kubrick was happy with the result^[10].

The Pentagon did not cooperate in the making of the film, as it had done with the 1955 film Strategic Air Command. Because the B-52 was state of the art in the 1960s, it was considered strictly secret and its cockpit was off limits to the film crew. The set designers reconstructed the cockpit to the best of their ability by making a comparison between the cockpit of a B-29 Superfortress and a single photograph of the cockpit of a B-52, and relating this to the geometry of the B-52's fuselage. When some American Air Force personnel were invited to tour the B-52 set, they said that "it was absolutely correct, even to the little black box which was the CRM."^[11] It was so correct that Kubrik was concerned that Ken Adam, the production designer, had done all of his research legally otherwise they "could be in serious trouble, with a possible investigation by the FBI." ^[11]

• The nuclear explosions at the end of the film are all actual US nuclear tests. Many of them were shot at Bikini Atoll, and old warships (such as the German Prinz Eugen heavy cruiser) expended as targets are plainly visible. In others the smoke trails of rockets used to create a calibration backdrop on the sky behind the explosion can be seen.

The original musical score for the film was composed by Laurie Johnson and the special effects were by Wally Veevers.

Cast

• Peter Sellers as:
  • Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a British exchange officer with an upper-class English accent
  • President Merkin Muffley, the American Commander-in-Chief
  • Dr. Strangelove, the sinister German nuclear war expert
• George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson, a strategic bombing enthusiast
• Sterling Hayden as General Jack D. Ripper, who is equally (and rabidly) paranoid and patriotic.
• Slim Pickens as Air Force Major T. J. "King" Kong, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber captain
• A young James Earl Jones, acting in his first film, plays bombardier Lieutenant Lothar Zogg
• Keenan Wynn as Colonel "Bat" Guano
• Peter Bull as Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadesky
• Shane Rimmer as Captain "Ace" Owens
• Tracy Reed as Gen. Turgidson's seductive secretary Miss Scott, the film's only female character; she also appears as the centerfold in the "Playboy" magazine that Major Kong is reading ^[1]

Peter Sellers' roles

Columbia Pictures agreed to provide financing for the film only under the condition that Peter Sellers would play at least four major roles. This condition stemmed from the studio's impression that much of the boxoffice success of Lolita (1962), Kubrick's previous film, was based on Sellers' playing multiple roles. Kubrick accepted the demand considering that "such crass and grotesque stipulations are the sine qua non of the motion-picture business"^[7][12].

Slim Pickens as Major Kong

Slim Pickens, an established character actor and veteran of many Western films, was quickly tapped to replace Sellers as Major Kong. It is no coincidence that his performance turned out so authentic; fellow actor James Earl Jones recalls, "He was Major Kong on and off the set—he didn't change a thing—his temperament, his language, his behavior." According to some sources, the British film crew thought he was a method actor, and his mannerisms were his way of "finding" his performance for the character, unaware that that was the way he really behaved.

Kubrick biographer John Baxter further explains in the documentary Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove:

"As it turns out, Slim Pickens had never left the United States. He had to hurry and get his first passport. He arrived on the set, and somebody said, "Gosh, he's arrived in costume!," not realizing that that's how he always dressed… with the cowboy hat and the fringed jacket and the cowboy boots—and that he wasn't putting on the character—that's the way he talked."

Pickens, who had previously played only minor supporting and character roles, stated that his appearance as Maj. Kong greatly improved his career. He would later comment, "After Dr. Strangelove the roles, the dressing rooms and the checks all started getting bigger."

Fail-Safe and Seven Days in May

Red Alert author Peter George collaborated on the screenplay with Kubrick and satirist Terry Southern. Red Alert was far more solemn in tone than its film version and the character of Dr. Strangelove never even existed on its pages. The main plot and technical elements, however, were quite similar. A novelization of the actual film, rather than a re-print of the original novel, was later penned by George. George committed suicide in 1966.

During the filming of Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick learned that Fail-Safe, a film with a similar theme, was being produced. Although Fail-Safe was to be an ultra-realistic thriller, Kubrick feared that its overall plot resemblances would damage Strangelove's box office run, especially if it were to be released first. Indeed, the novel Fail-Safe (on which the film of the same name is based) is so similar to Red Alert that Peter George sued on charges of plagarism and settled out of court. What worried Kubrick the most about Fail-Safe was that it boasted an acclaimed director, Sidney Lumet, and first-rate dramatic actors, Henry Fonda as the American President and Walter Matthau as the bold ex-Nazi advisor to the Pentagon, Professor Groepenschelesche. Kubrick decided that it would be in his film's best interests for a legal wrench to be thrown into the gears of the Fail-Safe production. Director Sidney Lumet recalls in the documentary, Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove:

We started casting. Fonda was already set... which of course meant a big commitment in terms of money. I was set, Walter [Bernstein, the screenwriter] was set... And suddenly, this lawsuit arrived, filed by Stanley Kubrick and Columbia Pictures.

Kubrick tried to halt production on Fail-Safe by arguing that its own 1960 source novel of the same name had been plagiarized from Peter George's Red Alert, to which Kubrick himself owned the creative rights. Also, he pointed out the unmistakable similarities in intentions between the characters Groeteschele and Strangelove. The plan ended up working exactly as Kubrick intended; Fail-Safe opened a full eight months behind Dr. Strangelove to critical acclaim, but mediocre box office results.

Also released in 1964 was Paramount Pictures' Seven Days in May (now owned by Warner Bros. Pictures). The plot involves a coup attempt by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to prevent the President of the United States from signing a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets, who, they believe, cannot be trusted.

The Kennedy assassination

A first test screening of the film was scheduled for November 22, 1963, the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination. The film was just weeks from its scheduled premiere, but as a result of the assassination, the release was delayed until late January 1964, as it was felt that the public was in no mood for such a film any sooner.

Additionally, one line by Slim Pickens ("a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff") was dubbed to become "in Vegas". The dub is apparent if Pickens' lips are watched closely when he speaks.

Alternative ending

A climactic cream pie fight scene, originally intended to appear at the end of the film, has become one of the most famous "deleted" scenes in cinema history; it was not included in the laserdisc and DVD releases, and the only known public showing of it was in the 1999 screening at the National Film Theatre in London following Kubrick's death.^{[citation needed]}

Accounts vary as to why the scene was cut. In a 1969 interview, Kubrick said: "I decided it was farce and not consistent with the satiric tone of the rest of the film."^[8]

Film critic and Kubrick biographer Alexander Walker observed that "the cream pies were flying around so thickly that people lost definition, and you couldn't really say whom you were looking at."^[11]

Nile Southern, son of screenwriter Terry Southern, suggests that the fight was intended to be less jovial. "Since they were laughing, it was unusable, because instead of having that totally black, which would have been amazing, like, this blizzard, which in a sense is metaphorical for all of the the missiles that are coming, as well, you just have these guys having a good old time. So, as Kubrick later said, 'it was a disaster of Homeric proportions.' "^[11]

However, editor Anthony Harvey states that "it would have stayed, except that Columbia Pictures were horrified, and thought it would offend the president's family."^[13]

The scene included General Turgidson exclaiming, "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" after Muffley takes a pie in the face. In the wake of the Kennedy assassination, this line, no matter how coincidental, would have hit too close to home to be used.

Trivia

• In several shots of the B-52 flying over the polar ice en route to Russia, the shadow of the actual camera plane, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, is visible on the snow below. The B-52 was a model composited into the arctic footage which was sped up to create a sense of jet speed. The camera ship, a former USAAF B-17G-100-VE, serial 44-85643, registered F-BEEA, had been one of four Flying Forts purchased from salvage at Altus, Oklahoma in December 1947 by the French Institut Geographique National and converted for survey and photo-mapping duty. It was the last active B-17 of a total of fourteen once operated by the IGN, but it was destroyed in a take-off accident at RAF Binbrook in 1989 during filming of the movie Memphis Belle. Home movie footage included in Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove on the 2001 Special Edition DVD release of the film show clips of the Fortress with a cursive "Dr. Strangelove" painted over the rear entry hatch on the right side of the fuselage.
• "Reportedly, Spike Milligan was responsible for suggesting the montage ending, while Tracy Reed, not knowing how the film would end, suggested "We'll Meet Again" for the ending song when asked what would be best.