46. Dr Strangelove
Dr Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Learn To Love The Bomb
In maybe the most brilliant satire on war ever, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove" looks at what would happen if nuclear war were declared by accident! Hilarious! While it may not sound like a barrel of laughs, it really is thanks in part to the cast mugging it up throughout the whole film, including Peter Sellers, one of the greatest muggers in the history of film, who plays three roles. The best of course being the film's title character.
A pastiche of multiple German scientists who fled during World War 2 (and some who didn't), Strangelove is the wheelchair-bound scientific advisor in the war room of President Merkin Muffley (also played by Sellers). Picked for his past experience as a Nazi physicist, he tries to hide his obviously embarrassing past, but seems to constantly go back into his old ways. Whether it be describing breeding a race of ubermensch after nuclear holocaust or accidentally calling the President "mein Furher" (on a couple occasions) or having his hand seemingly involuntarily go up into the Nazi salute, Strangelove (born with the ever weirder surname Merkwürdigliebe) can't seem to shake his past. Or doesn't want to.
Defining moment: His speech on building an underground bunker where special breeding will take place. An increasingly visibly excited Strangelove slowly gets up out of his chair without ever noticing until he proclaims the film's final lines (see quote). Although his excitement soon ends due to complete nuclear annihilation.
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