Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1965)

Kubrick's only black comedy is indeed the darkest of all dark comedys - a 'satire' on nuclear warfare, but one, despite its heavily controversial subject matter, that proved yet again Kubrick's unflagging ability to create a box office success and a critically acclaimed masterpiece out of a topic no other director of the time would have dared to touch.

The plot revolves around an extremely heated issue of the time when the film was released (1964), the Soviet/ US arms race. A deranged American General, Jack T. Ripper, has ordered his squadron of bombers to attack targets in the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons. After lengthy discussion between President Merkin Muffley, played by Peter Sellers, and several Soviet ambassadors, it is decided that the bombers must be shot down. Special strategic information is given to the Soviets by the Americans themselves, and the job of shooting down the bombers suddenly becomes even more important as it is realised that if any nuclear weapon reaches its target, a so-called 'Doomsday Machine' will be set off. All the bombers are stopped with the exception of one, which successfully releases it bomb load and triggers the Doomsday Machine.

In perhaps what was the first real showing of Kubrick's very own trademark filmmaking styles, we recognise several shots and scenes in Dr. Strangelove that indeed seem a pre-cursor of things to come. Most obvious are the heavy shots of General Jack T. Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden, during which the camera is looking straight up at Hayden's face and out in the direction of Peter Sellers. Throughout nearly all of Kubrick's films we see examples of these shots; Alex's menacing glare as he drives his Durango '95 in A Clockwork Orange, and Jack Torrance's evil eye as he chases his son through the Overlook Maze in The Shining. Both of these shots show the character looking directly at the camera with their heads slightly bowed, almost as if they were looking through their own eyebrows. Another stunning scene that seems almost a sign of good things to come is the missile attack scene on the bomber flown by Slim Pickens, who in the end releases the bomb that sets off the Doomsday Machine. The musical score pounds out, tensing the audience until the moment the missile hits the target, at which point there is a sudden halting of all sound. Only panicked voices remain audible and the viewers are dumbfounded at this sudden transformation to surrealism. It is in every respect similar to another famous Kubrick scene, Dave Bowman's reentry to the Discovery hatch in 2001.

Of course, one must not forget the pure hilarity of the main characters names in the film. Dr. Strangelove, after whom the film is named, has a very strange love of weapons, and remains 'impotent' until the rise of the new reich makes him suddenly 'erect' and able to stand out of his wheelchair. And our deranged friend, General Jack T. Ripper, is obviously named after Jack The Ripper, who disembowled prostitutes in London during the late 19th century. After experiencing a moment of impotence, he sees it not as a problem of his own but rather a Communist conspiracy - he orders the attack on Soviet targets. Other names of note are: General Buck Turgidson, Ambassador DeSadesky, Primiere Kissov, Major Kong, Merkin Muffley and Colonel Bat Guano.