EMC: Abstract: Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb*

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Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb*

• 1964 ----- b & w ----- 94 min ----- vhs
• (Directed by Stanley Kubrick, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George based on the novel Red Alert, aka Two Hours to Doom by Peter George; with Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones, Tracy Reed) U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper goes completely and utterly mad, and sends his bomber wing to destroy the U.S.S.R. He suspects that the communists are conspiring to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people. The U.S. president meets with his advisors, where the Soviet ambassador tells him that if the U.S.S.R. is hit by nuclear weapons, it will trigger a "Doomsday Device" which will destroy all plant and animal life on Earth. Peter Sellers portrays the three men who might avert this tragedy: British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the only person with access to the demented Gen. Ripper; U.S. President Merkin Muffley, whose best attempts to divert disaster depend on placating a drunken Soviet Permier and the former Nazi genius Dr. Strangelove, who concludes that "such a device would not be a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious". Will the bombers be stopped in time, or will General Jack Ripper succeed in destroying the world ? [Letterboxed] (Restricted to classroom use only)
• Topics: (Atomic Energy, Literature: American, Motion Pictures: Features, Political Science: American, Political Science: Russian, East European and Central Asian, War and Peace)

		Educational Media Collection risimiki@u.washington.edu Modified: January 11, 2007