History Film / DrStrangelove

** President Muffley has some similarities to Adlai Stevenson. Gens. Ripper and Turgidson could both be seen as caricaturing different aspects of real-life USAF General Curtis [=LeMay=]. And Strangelove himself has aspects of several real-life nuclear scientists, but his Nazi past specifically evokes Werner von Braun.

** ArthurCClarke, who knew both Stanley Kubrick and Werner von Braun, reported that Kubrick once asked him to "tell Werner I wasn't getting at him". Clarke adds, "I never did because, firstly, I didn't believe him, and secondly, even if Stanley wasn't, Peter Sellers certainly was."

* TheWarRoom: A very influential Ur-example. A huge, elaborate set designed by KenAdam.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Peter Sellers plays three roles. He was originally slated to play Major Kong, but broke his ankle during filming and [[AWorldwidePunomenon the part was recast]]. Sellers also had trouble with the accent.

** President Muffley, on the phone with the Soviet Premiere -- "One of our generals went a little... "funny"... and went and did a silly thing..."

** Even though we hear only President Muffley's side of the conversation, it's quite obvious that Premier Kisov is sloshed out of his gourd. It's more than hinted earlier when [=DeSadesky=] warns Muffley beforehand of a probably intoxicated Kissov.
** General Ripper asks Mandrake if he has ever seen a Russian driking water and then "concludes" that they only drink vodka.

* RidingTheBomb: The UrExample of this.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Honed to an art form. Almost everything is a sexual reference of some kind if you look hard enough-- Kong's target (Laputa), Buck Turgidson's name, Jack D. Ripper (the murderer Jack the Ripper mutilated women's sexual organs), Merkin Muffley (speaking of "country" matters), etc. etc. See VisualInnuendo below, also.

* GeneralRipper: TropeNamer, obviously.
** General Turgidson has some elements too, since they are both based on the hardliner General Curtis Lemay. Turgidson is loyal but trigger-happy and contemptuos and loathes Muffley's mild approach. Ripper is calmly collected and Turgidson is over-the-top. Out of context and without some dialogue, Ripper would seem the sane one. Overall, Ripper's an insane conspiracy theorist bent on World War III, and Turgidson's letting his inner five-year old playing with army men out.

'''''Dr. Strangelove [[EitherOrTitle or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb]]''''' is a 1964 BlackComedy film by StanleyKubrick. The plot is largely lifted from the 1958 novel ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Alert_%28novel%29 Red Alert]]'' by Peter George.

** Also how General Turgidson deeply respects his lover as a person and wants to make her "Mrs. Buck Turgidson."

* MrExposition: General Turgidson and Doctor Strangelove are advisors and explain most of the strategical and technical details to the President, and to the audience by extension.

* AFatherForHisMen: When the base falls Ripper remarks that the soldiers were like his children and feels let down. It rings as true as anything else he says.

* DressingAsTheEnemy. Ripper informs the personnel of the Air Force Base that "Russian attackers" may pull this, and the defenders discuss it later when the forces sent by the US President are attacking them.

* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: Used for the nukes, of course.

* ThisIsNotADrill: Mandrake and the crew of the B-52 -except Kong- initially assume that "Plan-R" is a drill or a loyalty test.

** General Turgidson has some elements too, since they are both based on the hardliner General Curtis Lemay. Turgidson is loyal but trigger-happy and contemptuos and loathes Muffley's mild approach. Ripper is calmly collected and Turgidson is over-the-top. Out of context and without some dialogue, Ripper would seem the sane one.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: General Turdgidson enthusiastically reports an unofficial analysis for the contigency summarizing that the United States would suffer reduced ''megadeths'' (20M vs 150M) if they capitalize on the situation and commit to a full attack.

** Downplayed by Turgison, he despises the Russians but tries to balance the scolding with a fair compliment.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In-universe. [=DeSadesky=] explains that the Soviets built their machine because they feared a "Doomsday-gap" when they "discovered" that the Americans were building one. When the US President rebukes that as a ludicrous fantasy, the ambassador replies: [[EpicFail our source was the ''The New York Times'']]

* NoYouHangUpFirst: The first conversation between the American and Russian presidents is modeled this way. Overlaps with CasualDangerDialogue and projects a ridicule image of Muffley.

* TheOneThingIDontHateAboutYou: Mandrake laments his treatment in a Japanese POW camp, but admits that the Japanese do make bloody good cameras.

-->''Muffley'' : General Turgidson, I've heard quite sufficient from you. Thank you very much

** Even though we hear only President Muffley's side of the conversation, it's quite obvious that Premier Kisov is sloshed out of his gourd.

* NotSoDifferent: The Americans and Soviets: it's not at all clear which side is meant to be the good guys, they both indulge in highly morally questionable behaviour (The Soviets build a DoomsdayDevice which is bad enough, only to compound things by not telling the Americans about it, while the American Plan R is simply a manual DoomsdayMachine that's also designed to fail deadly, and they're using an obvious Nazi as a science advisor). Each side is just as scheming or conniving or manipulative as the other, constantly harping on about various "gaps" (missile, doomsday, mineshaft, etc), and even after causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt they just can't take a step back, look at themselves and wonder how much of this is their own fault.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Riding a nuke all the way to the target, whooping and hollaring like a cowboy all the way down is about as awesome as a death gets! It's one of the most memorable (and parodied) scenes in the film.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Mandrake has problems reaching the president to recall the bombers, he finds a PayPhone but has not enough pocket change and a brief [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage issue with british vs american terms]]. Finally one of the bombers cannot be recalled via the OverrideCommand because its communication system has been destroyed. Armaggedon ensues.

* FailsafeFailure

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Riding a nuke all the way to the target, whooping and collaring like a cowboy all the way down is about as awesome as a death gets! It's one of the most memorable (and parodied) scenes in the film.

* DirtyCommunists: Only Ripper and Turgidson loathe the Russians, most of the characters treat the Soviets with pragmatism or respect.

* BeneathTheEarth: The future of manking AfterTheEnd is to dwell in underground facilities and fallout shelters for almost a century. That and an eternal vigilance by those who think that "a mine-shaft gap should not be allowed".

* ForeverWar: Implied; the jingoist generals and advisors are planning AfterTheEnd schemes to maintain the status-quo of the ColdWar, prevent Soviet expansionism and a "mine-shaft gap". Reinforced by the WeWillMeetAgain final montage
* FreudWasRight: Invoked if not by the characters then by the film itself. A central theme of the movie is the portrayal of sexual symbolism as more than symbolism, Kubrick paraphrases Clausewitz "war is the continuation of sex by other means" without much room for interpretation. The opening refueling scene of two bombers "coupling", Mandrake attempting "preversion" with a vending machine coin return slot, the not-sot-veiled sexual references that drive the madness of General Ripper and the very meaningful names of the two warmongerings (him and Turgidson) who push against the peaceful one (Merkin Muffley). Near the end there is yet another MoodDissonance when the characters are happily planning a postnuclear scenario where the male to female ratio would land them with their own [[AdamAndEvePlot harems to repopulate the world]].

** General Turgidson has some elements too, since they are both based on the hardliner General Curtis Lemay. Turgidson is loyal but trigger-happy and contemptuos, he admires Ripper's resolution while he loathes Muffley's mild approach. Ripper is calmly collected and Turgidson is over-the-top. Out of context and without some dialogue, Ripper would seem the sane one .

* HerrDoctor: Strangelove, of course.

* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: Turgidson thinks it can be averted with a pre-emptive strike since the United Stats have five-to-one missile superiority. Enforced once the Doomsday Machine comes into play.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: President Muffley has some similarities to Adlai Stevenson. Gens. Ripper and Turgidson could both be seen as caricaturing different aspects of real-life USAF General Curtis [=LeMay=]. And Strangelove himself has aspects of several real-life nuclear scientists, but his Nazi past specifically evokes Werner von Braun.

* NoYouHangUpFirst: The conversation between the American and Russian presidents is modeled this way. It projects a ridicule image of Muffley.

* OhCrap: In normal circumstances, you WANT your attacking aircraft to get to its target against all odds. However, we have just learned that this will trigger a planet-destroying Doomsday Device, and there's ONE bomber out there that has missed the recall order and survived being shot down so far. It finding a target to bomb is now exactly what we do NOT want. Gen. Turgidson misses this point for a while, gushing on about the toughness and skill of the surviving B-52 bomber and its crew. Finally, Pres. Muffley cuts in and asks directly: (on reaching the target and dropping a bomb, even through the entire Soviet air defense grid) "Has he got a chance?" Turgidson: "Has he got a chance? HELL YE...ohhh..." George C. Scott's face [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLe8MWdWe0 is priceless]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: Mandrake has problems reaching the president to recall the bombers, he finds a PayPhone but has not enough pocket change and a brief [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage issue with british vs american terms]]. Finally one of the bombers cannot be recalled via the OverrideCommand because its communication system has been destroyed. Armaggedon ensues.

* SlaveToPR: Turgidson suggests to capitalize on the mistake and do a full scale attack. Muffley shuts his down, Turgidson slaps back.
-->'''Muffley''' : You are talking mass murder not war [...] I'm not going down in history as the greatest mass murderer since AdolfHitler.

** Supposedly, Sellers' last line was the result of a mistake; he forgot that Strangelove was supposed to be a cripple, and realized it after he had stood up.
*** I doubt that, as he staggers to his feet and moves jerkily and is off-balance, as if not used to using his legs. He would've stood up normally if he simply forgot.

** Also, in the scene where Major Kong reads the description of a survival kit's contents out loud, he originally says "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in ''Dallas'' with all that stuff!" ''Dallas'' was redubbed to ''Vegas'' because of the connotations carried by ''Dallas'' in a post JFK-assassination America.
*** Which actually worked out well, as ''Vegas'' makes more sense in this context.
** Most importantly, the original ending was to have everyone in the war room end up in a pie fight (don't ask). The President would be knocked down from the impact of the pie hitting him, with Gen. Turgidson saying "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" Despite it being filmed before the assassination...wow. Just wow. (That wasn't why the scene was deleted, though- they just [[{{Corpsing}} couldn't film it with the necessary "gravity."]])
* {{Understatement}}: "Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed..."

* VodkaDrunkenski: Even though we hear only President Muffley's side of the conversation, it's quite obvious that Premier Kisov is sloshed out of his gourd.
* TheWarRoom: A very influential Ur-example. A huge, elaborate set designed by Ken Adam.

* GatlingGood: General Ripper defends the base with one.

* MadScientist: The titular doctor is a ShoutOut to Rotwang from 'Film/Metropolis' and classical {{StockCharacter}}s

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After being informed of the ''badness'' of the Doomsday Machine, a world-eding device, Turgidson first reaction is : "Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines!"

* ForeverWar: Implied; the jingoist generals and advisors are planning AfterTheEnd schemes to maintain the status-quo of the ColdWar, prevent Soviet expansionism and a "mine-shaft gap". Reinforced by the WeWillMeetAgain final montage

* TheWarRoom