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

Friday, November 30, 2012 | 7:30 pm
2012: A Kubrick Odyssey
1964/b&w/94 min.
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Scr: Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern; dir: Stanley Kubrick w / Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens

Kubrick and Sellers reteamed for this Cold War landmark about a nation scrambling to head off disaster after a rogue, hawkish general who orders an anti-Soviet nuclear attack. Sellers famously plays not one but three leads in this ensemble comedy: U.S. president Merkin Muffley, RAF officer Lionel Mandrake, and the titular ex-Nazi, paraplegic strategist (whose pinched whine was apparently inspired by Weegee, whom Kubrick hired as the film’s set photographer). Joining Sellers are The Killing’s Sterling Hayden as cigar-chomping, paranoid general Jack D. Ripper and George C. Scott as the gum chewing, manic General Buck Turgidson. With a script coauthored by counter-culture fixture Terry Southern, Dr. Strangelove is rife with double entendres, absurdist jargon, and mordant gags. Largely set in President Muffley’s cavernous, starkly-lit War Room, Dr. Strangelove caustically portrays the orderly rationalization of mankind’s ultimate destruction. The film also marks perhaps the first usage of vertical montage in a Kubrick film, as source music is overlaid on imagery to create startling juxtapositions, such as “Try a Little Tenderness” played over the opening credits as a B-52 is refueled by another plane mid-flight and “We’ll Meet Again” serenading the film’s fateful conclusion. Released in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis and John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Dr. Strangelove proved a surprise box-office smash and remains a comedy classic.

Make a night of it! Learn more about the pop-up dinner before the screening and make a reservation.

Bing Theater | In person: graphic designer Pablo Ferro, whose credits include Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange.

Followed by a free screening of the brand new short documentary Stanley Kubrick in Focus  (2012/color and b&w/29 min./HD). 

$10 for the general public; $7 for LACMA members, seniors (62+), and students with valid ID; $5 LACMA Film Club members and Academy members with valid ID. | Tickets: 323 857-6010 or purchase online.