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

"Dazzling wit, performances of genius and the incredible audacity of the idea make it a masterpiece. The nuclear age has found its first comedy" (Evening Standard)

"Very, very funny...Nothing less than a masterpiece." (Sunday Telegraph)

"An outstanding achievement of the cinema...Overkillingly funny." (Sunday Express)

"Brilliantly funny satire, witty, thrilling, terrifying, hugely successful." (The People)

"Devastating, every suspense-building device is called on to keep us sitting on the edge of our seats." (The Times)

"Just tell Stanley that New York does not see anything funny about the end of the world. ...As we know it." (Columbia Pictures Executive Producer, to Terry Southern).

"Almost everything in Dr. Strangelove was true." (Eric Schlosser, author of "Command and Control", 2013).

The US Strategic Air Command maintained daily airborne alert missions, using B52 jet aircraft carrying hydrogen bombs. If they received a "Go" code, they were to proceed towards their targets, located deep inside the Soviet Union, unless the planes received a recall code at their "fail-safe" points. In his 1958 book Red Alert, Peter George (ex-RAF intelligence) described this "fail-safe" aspect of nuclear deterrence – including the 'black box' and the 'CRM Discriminator' – carried on each plane. These revelations could have been considered treasonous in the US. Thus, the technology of nuclear deterrence, incorporated in Dr. Strangelove, is authentic and gives the film its credibility.

Engrossed in studying books on thermonuclear war, Kubrick acquired the film rights to Red Alert, and envisaged making a film about nuclear war triggered by a psychopath. But working on the screenplay, he concluded the subject was too appalling and turned to satire instead. He told Terry Southern (who wrote the dialogue’s deadpan humour) that “the film would be about our failure to understand the dangers of nuclear war”. Kubrick had planned “a straightforward melodrama” but then “he woke up and realised that nuclear war was too outrageous, too fantastic to be treated in any conventional manner.” He said that now he could only see it as “some kind of hideous joke.” Having asked: "What if...", the film pursues this question, with absolute logic, to its hilarious and terrifying end.

Southern and Kubrick rewrote the script for each day's filming en route from Knightsbridge to Shepperton studios in the back of a Bentley. Improvisations were added by Peter Sellers who, the studio insisted, had to play four major roles, including the Texan B52 pilot Major Kong. But Sellers suffered an ankle injury and fall, and was replaced in the pilot's role by Slim Pickens, a former rodeo clown from Texas.

Ken Adam (designer of the Bond film Dr. No) created the famous set of the Pentagon war room. It has an enormous table, around which sit thirty-two people: the US President, the Chiefs of Staff, advisors, US generals and the Soviet Ambassador. Although filmed in black and white, Kubrick insisted the table be covered in green baize, to symbolise the gamble taking place over the future of mankind.

Filmed at Shepperton Studios, the scenes were shot not for comedy, but grim realism. USAF personnel visiting the sets considered them remarkably accurate, including the B52 cockpit. But the US authorities were not very helpful because of the film's satirical intent.

When it was released in the US, Columbia Pictures publicity department defended the company against the film saying it was definitely not "anti-US military" but "just a zany novelty flick which did not reflect the views of the corporation in any way." Twenty-five years later, Dr. Strangelove was inducted into the US Library of Congress National Film Registry for preservation, being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Don't miss this opportunity to see (or see again) the original Dr. Strangelove - Stanley Kubrick’s amazing film, in this fully restored, high-definition screening. (Programme notes provided.)

UK | 1964 | Black & White |HD | 95 mins