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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Countries
United Kingdom USA
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Year
1964
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Genres
Comedy Science Fiction
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- Dr. Strangelove Alternative
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Alternative
Introduction
“The theme that emerges from Dr. Strangelove is the plight of fallible man putting himself at the mercy of his ‘infallible’ machines and thus bringing about his own destruction.”
Gene D. Phillips, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1990
Stanley Kubrick originally intended a straight adaptation of Peter George’s novel Red Alert, a chilling thriller about a paranoid American general initiating a nuclear bombing mission over the USSR. But he saw the absurdity behind the retaliatory strategy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and decided to film it as a comedy.
In an acting tour de force, Sellers plays the British officer attempting to apprehend the psychotic general (Sterling Hayden), the US President trying to smooth things over with his Soviet opposite opposite number, and the eccentric Dr Strangelove, a German émigré scientist with an autonomous Nazi arm and wild ideas about the post-apocalyptic world.
Much of the action of Kubrick’s jet-black satirical masterpiece occurs within the cavernous War Room at the Pentagon, a space indelibly imagined by production designer Ken Adam.
Sidney Lumet’s Fail-Safe, made the same year, is a more sombre treatment of a similar story, with Henry Fonda playing the president.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
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President Merkin Muffley
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Dr Strangelove
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General 'Buck' Turgidson
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General Jack D. Ripper
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Colonel 'Bat' Guano
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Major T.J. 'King' Kong
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Ambassador de Sadesky
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Lt Lothar Zogg, bombardier
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Miss Scott
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Staines
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Lt H.R. Dietrich, D.S.O.
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Admiral Randolph
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Lt W. D. Kivel, navigator
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Frank
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Captain G.A. 'Ace' Owens, co-pilot
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Burpelson base defender
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Lt B. Goldberg, radio operator
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Burpelson base defender
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General Faceman
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Burpelson base defender
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Credits
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Direction:
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Directed by
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Assistant Director
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Continuity
Production:
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©/Production Company
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Production Company
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Produced by
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Associate Producer
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[Unit Manager]
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Production Manager
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Studio
Writing:
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Screenplay by
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Screenplay by
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Screenplay by
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Based on the book 'Red Alert' by
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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Camera Operator
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Camera Assistant
Special Effects:
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Travelling Matte
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Special Effects
Editing:
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Film Editor
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Assembly Editor
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Assistant Editor
Design:
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Production Designer
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Art Director
Costumes:
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Wardrobe
Make-up:
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Make-up
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Hairdresser
Titles:
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Main Title by
Music:
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Music
Sound:
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Sound Supervisor
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Recordist
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Dubbing Mixer
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Sound Editor
Consultant:
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Aerial Adviser
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Voted for by 14 critics and 6 directors.
See who voted for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb