Calling Dr. Strangelove: The Anatomy and Influence of the Kubrick Masterpiece

by George Case

Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is one of the most celebrated and significant films ever made. This book traces the movie's origins as a thriller novel through its evolution into a devastating black comedy, to its ultimate reception as an undisputed cinema classic.

A wealth of fresh detail is provided on Dr. Strangelove's production, its initial reception and its lasting influence. The book also examines the film within the context of the real-life superpower standoff it satirized and evaluates its place alongside director Kubrick's entire catalog of famous works. Drawn from interviews, biographical research and extensive cultural analysis, this work is an indispensable resource for Kubrick fans, movie buffs and students of Cold War history.

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1940

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

“…it is almost impossible today to discuss…the Cold War without discussing Dr. Strangelove.”

This is a strong analysis of one of the great movies. George Case gives us the origin of the story, how it transformed from a straight drama to a twisted black comedy, into the production, the initial public reaction, and the lasting legacy. Calling Dr. Strangelove goes above and beyond what most film books do. The author makes clear how well the movie reflected the absolute insanity of the Cold War era.
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Title: Calling Dr. Strangelove: The Anatomy and Influence of the Kubrick Masterpiece
Author: George Case
Year: 2014
Genre: Nonfiction - Film history
Page count: 204 pages
Date(s) read: 9/12/23 - 9/15/23
Reading journal entry #173 in 2023
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Some quotes:

The longer the bomb is around without anything happening, the better the job that people do in psychologically denying its existence. It has become as abstract as the fact that we are all going to die someday, which we usually do an excellent job of denying. —Stanley Kubrick. (p. 5).

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Several titles had then been floated before settling on Dr. Strangelove, including one which evoked the darkly erotic undertones of the narrative: The Atomic Blonde. Others jotted down by Kubrick came nearer to his final selection, including The Passion of Dr. Strangelove; Save the Bomb; Doctor Doomsday, or How to Start World War III Without Even Trying; The Bomb of Bombs; Strangelove: Nuclear Wise Man; and the deeply weird Dr. Strangelove’s Secret Uses of Uranus. (p. 35).

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But Peter Sellers was also a complex and in some ways a troubled man. As his Goon Show repertoire suggested, his talents were less those of a traditional actor and more of an inspired mimic. His career anticipated, perhaps, that of later comic performers such as Robin Williams or some of the players from Monty Python’s Flying Circus or Saturday Night Live—people who were brilliant when doing impromptu caricatures or wacky impersonations but who came less naturally to sustaining nuanced characters over an entire play or film. “As far as I am aware I have no personality of my own whatsoever,” Sellers admitted in 1960. “I have the feeling that the film character enters my body as if I were a kind of medium.” Nor did Sellers even consider himself to be a particularly amusing individual. “I am not a funny man,” he said while Dr. Strangelove was taking shape. “I am quiet, shy, reserved. And I have to know people very well before I open up with them.” (p. 45).

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“…the isolation of each Dr. Strangelove locale from every other is fundamental to the movie’s horror” (p. 97).
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Stanley Kubrick and Joseph Heller met in person after Dr. Strangelove was released, and found a tentative common ground between their two works. “I see a connection between Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove only in a most general sense,” Heller said. “We have this universal attitude toward war and war makers, that they are threatening, dangerous, and very often, ridiculous.” Kubrick saw it slightly differently. “I see a connection in style between Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove, in the sense that they both look at reality with a certain twist, a very similar twist,” the filmmaker suggested. Though plainly dissimilar in their settings and their premises, Catch-22 and Dr. Strangelove were arguably the most important black comedies ever made. Creating in their two mediums, Heller and Kubrick could both claim to have made a significant impact on the popular view of armed conflict during the second half of the twentieth century. (p. 163).

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Because Dr. Strangelove had exaggerated the hazards of the nuclear age for comedy, the greater accuracy of the staid Fail-Safe received less coverage. It was Fail-Safe, however, which was closer to the truth of the miscalculations and accidents which had really plagued the American nuclear command system. (p. 165).

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After all, what could be more absurd than the very idea of two mega-powers willing to wipe out all human life because of an accident, spiced up by political differences that will seem as meaningless to people a hundred years from now as the theological conflicts of the Middle Ages appear to us today? —Stanley Kubrick. (p. 174).

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“…it is almost impossible today to discuss the coldest years of the Cold War without discussing Dr. Strangelove” (p. 175).
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Dr. Strangelove stands as Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece by virtue of its own singular qualities, but it is also his masterpiece, perhaps, because it was never intended to be one. Whereas 2001 was meant to break from the conventions of science fiction, The Shining aimed to be the horror movie to end all horror movies, and Napoleon was frankly planned as the greatest film ever made, there were no such ambitions for Dr. Strangelove. Dr. Strangelove was a very timely film when it was produced, when so many of its particulars took off from current events, while Kubrick’s later pictures grew self-consciously timeless; on Dr. Strangelove, the director encouraged input and improvisation from his cast and others on the Shepperton sets, while his later pictures were marked by his increasing authority over every aspect of the production; on Dr. Strangelove, the director solicited contributions from a varied group of talented people, while his later pictures saw him turn more and more to recurring teams of insiders, including members of his family. Like so much great popular art, the triumph of Dr. Strangelove came about as much through serendipity and sudden inspiration as through intentional planning. (p. 217).

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[Rodger Payne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ordered this via interlibrary loan for an article I wrote about gender in Dr. Strangelove. It arrived too late to cite, but I decided to give it a read. There are many books about Stanley Kubrick and several about Dr. Strangelove. This is not among the best, but it does touch upon some of the same themes I address in my article.