DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
The impotence of war
Spoilers for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Trigger warnings for brief mentions of child abuse and suicide.
The filmography of Stanley Kubrick is rife with themes of sexuality. His adaption of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (1962) was controversial due to its exploration of the paedophilic urges of its lead character Humbert Humbert (James Mason). As discussed in Rodney Ascher’s wonderful documentary, Room 237, parts of The Shining (1980) can be read as examinations of sexuality. Then there’s the hedonism taken to extremes in A Clockwork Orange (1971) and kept behind closed doors in Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
None of these films have sexuality so deftly layered within as his 1964 satire Dr. Strangelove, however. Through overt visual gags, such as Major T.J. Kong (Slim Pickens) straddling a nuclear weapon as it falls to its target, through to the various innuendos that litter the dense script, Kubrick creates not only a defining political satire but a savage exploration of masculinity and the fear of impotence.
It should come as no surprise. War is, after all, a dick-measuring contest on a catastrophic scale. Regardless of the justifications, it boils down to two global powers showing off the size of their arsenal irrespective of the collateral damage.
Working with writers Terry Southern and Peter George, the latter of whom wrote the source novel Red Alert, Kubrick constantly refers to the male genitalia throughout the film. Take George C. Scott’s fiercely anti-communist and patriotic character General Buck Turgidson. Not only is he shown to be virile at the start of the film – having an affair with his secretary (Tracy Reed) – but his last name is a play on an erection. Before he even reaches the War Room, he sums up the events of the film in one flirtatious innuendo.
“Just start counting down and I’ll be back here before you can say blast off.”
In one line, the film associates the explosion of rockets and missiles with an orgasm; linking sexual prowess with power in the audience’s mind.
To sum the film up, it sounds incredibly simple. Brigadier General Jack D Ripper (Sterling Hayden) orders an unprovoked nuclear attack on Russia, caused by his paranoia over communist infiltration. Also stationed at the base is Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers in one of three roles in the film), who attempts to talk down Ripper before the bombs are dropped.
It’s worth noting the origin of Mandrake’s name. Mandrake is the root of the nightshade plant. In modern times, ingestion of it is known to cause delirium – which links with Ripper’s paranoia within the story – but Pedanius Dioscorides, an ancient Greek physician and botanist, believed it could be used in a love potion, as a pain killer or abortion aid. The philosopher Theophrastus presented a bizarre ritual for harvesting the root which included as much lewd sex talk as possible.
While Mandrake attempts to coax the recall codes from Ripper and Kong and his crew fly to their designated targets, Turgidson, and the rest of the military staff brief President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again), who must negotiate with a drunken Soviet Premier over the phone and ambassador Alexei de Sadeski (Peter Bull) to try and avoid global devastation. Also in the War Room is nuclear expert and former Nazi, Dr Strangelove (the third and final Seller’s role), who advises the politicians on a route forward while simultaneously lapsing into old ways and addressing the president as ‘Mein Führer’.
The funniest moments in the film take place in the War Room, with increasingly ridiculous concerns about Doomsday Device Gaps and even Mineshaft Gaps, mocking the continued escalation of the Soviet Union and the United States during the Arms Race and Space Race. The film’s sexual themes are most apparent during the scenes with Ripper and Mandrake.
When the army is ordered to take the base from Ripper by force, we are given a series of visual gags that are supposed to represent Ripper’s masculinity. He smokes a large cigar, which throughout the first part of the film remains intact. As the troops approach, he pulls out an obscenely large machine gun and is often shown shooting from the hip, turning the gun into a phallic object.
This would be enough. If war is a dick-measuring contest then the character is more than qualified for it. But the script moves away from the overt humour when it becomes clear that Ripper will be captured. It starts with the payoff to the sight of his cigar, which is now burnt down. The gun is held loosely in his hand, pointing downwards.
He starts to discuss his theories about communism with Mandrake. He says that the Russians introduced fluoridation to water to pollute the bodily fluids of Americans. Given the phallic imagery we’ve been subjected to, it isn’t too much of a leap to suggest that the bodily fluids he is talking about are semen.
Then he explicitly says it. He explains that he first came up with the theory after having sex with a woman. Ripper says that he felt his essence leave his body. This could just be a flowery way to say that he ejaculated but as he continues, it starts to sound like impotence. He says that it had never happened before – almost word for word the cliché spoken by men when they fail to sustain an erection.
Even the surrender of Ripper’s troops adds to this. While there’s nothing visual to suggest it, Ripper’s description of them leaving him within the context of his conversation with Mandrake seems to give voice to his disappointment in his sexual capabilities.
As virility and masculinity are continually linked together in popular culture, the film starts to explore Ripper’s supposed manliness in more detail, as he explains that he doesn’t believe he would stand up to torture. He steps into the bathroom and shoots himself, instead of revealing the recall code.
It's a stunning scene, wonderfully performed by both Hayden and Sellers. Taken within the picture, it’s a tragic story of masculinity leading to mass destruction, with no lessons learnt in the meantime. It is Ripper’s insecure masculinity that kickstarts the chain of events, and it is Kong riding the phallic bomb down from the skies that ends it all.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George. Based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George.
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, Tracy Reed
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