BENNETT INVENTORY : That Moment

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb -- A little guessing game

When a typically "Dramatic" director attempts straight Comedy, the outcome is always interesting (1941, After Hours, Punch-Drunk Love). Regardless of whether or not they're successful or even effective, it provides a window into their sense of humor (despite his genius, Spielberg is plainly a child). Kubrick predictably had the most complex approach: in order for this satire to work, nearly every element had to be grounded in realism, free from abstractions. Seems like that would be uncomfortable territory for Stanley Kubrick, but he clearly understood the assignment and predictably knew how to make a picture exactly how he knew it should be made. 

Consider this scene on paper: a military General takes his own life for fear of being captured and tortured by his own men, taking with him the only disarming code to prevent imminent Mutual Assured Destruction. I think it's the funniest scene in a film of funny scenes. The movie's segmented into three different threads each featuring a separate cast of characters all working with and against each other. This thread - The Ripper/Mandrake thread - is my favorite for a number of reasons, mostly because of the uncomfortable intimacy of this literal hostage situation consisting of the stoic but insane U.S. Officer and the polite but rational British Officer as his captive. Throughout the movie Mandrake placates Ripper to assure his own personal safety, but then as this pivotal moment draws near and Sterling becomes more morose and withdrawn, Sellers amps up the Hoorah Henry cup-o-tea English charm as he begins to frantically save the world in a matter of seconds. Ripper merely insinuates that he's about to take some sort of action, and in the next 40 seconds of screen time Peter Sellers breaks into what I want to assume is a frenetic stream of improv as he scrambles to politely retrieve any pertinent information from Sterling Hayden before he blows his brains out. The real punchline for me is when Sterling finally disappears into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him as Sellars is left alone, trying to carry on a one-sided conversation through the door, involving a "guessing game" that he's just made up on the spot in a weak attempt to figure out the recall code. "I'll try and guess what the code is--" as a single gunshot stifles his proposed game rules like a rimshot punctuation. 

- Paul