acoolsha
Stanley Kubrick
Retrospective and exhibition in the Deutsches Filmmuseum and the Deutsches Architektur Museum from 31 March to 4 July 2004, Frankfurt, Germany.
www.stanleykubrick.de
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 5 June 04
Section: kubrick
Categories: Film / in-a-cinema
This is the funniest film, and the most appropriately funny film, I have ever seen. I have lost track of how many times I have in fact seen it, but it stays fresh.
When I try to think of other comedic performers my memory is blotted out by the diverse performances of Peter Sellers, particularly under the direction of Stanley Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove and Lolita.
Just for fun, here are the names of the main characters as played by the actors, respectively, listed below:
- Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley / Dr. Strangelove (P.S.) (As a minor note: the President’s first name, Merkin, is like German merken, to notice, and muffley contains muffle, meaning to deaden or to stifle, as in a sound, so for my feeling it could be rendered as muffled awareness or even dim-witted. The translation of Dr. Strangelove in the film by Mr. Staines is: Merkwürdigliebe, which, though not a real word as far as I know, does mean Strangelove, containing the word merkwürdig, meaning strange, or broken down but no longer the literal meaning: worthy of notice, with the merk common root to merken, and therefore linking the President’s name to Strangelove’s: Merkin / Merkwürdig. The actual German title is different: Dr. Seltsam, meaning strange, but missing the love, so to speak.)
- Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson (G.C.S.)
- Brig. Gen Jack D. Ripper (S.H.)
- Col. Bat Guano (K.W.) (Another note on the above: my fellow North, Central and South Americans will mostly know, but perhaps not some European and Far Eastern readers, that Bat Guano basically means bat shit.)
- Maj. T.J. ‘King’ Kong (S.P.)
- Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (P.B.) (Okay, another thing: note the de Sade in Alexi’s name: Turgidson calls de Sadesky a sexual deviant and pervert. And further allow to be noted that Marquis de Sade was an advocate of a utopian form of Socialism during his life from 1740 to 1814.)
- Lt. Lothar Zogg (J.E.J.)
- Miss Foreign Affairs (in the Playboy photo, and Turgidson’s mistress) (T.R.) (The only woman in the film.)
- Mr. Staines (J.C.) (Mr. Staines was the man always sitting next to the President. Jack Creley died in March of 2004.)
If you want, see some more background info here.
Title: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George
Based on the book: Red Alert
Written by: Peter George
Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenen Wynn, Slim Pickens, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones, Tracy Reed, Jack Creley, and more
Produced by: Stanley Kubrick
Original Music by: Laurie Johnson
Cinematography by: Gilbert Taylor
Film Editing by: Anthony Harvey
Production Design by: Ken Adam
Year: 1964
Cinema: Filmmuseum, Frankfurt
- Title: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb