Still Negative Function

I recently picked up the 45th anniversary blu-ray edition of Dr. Strangelove and watched this film -- for my money, one of Kubrick's two more-or-less perfect efforts, the other being 2001: A Space Odyssey -- for what I suppose is the umpteenth-plus-fifth time.  The blu-ray is a very handsome transfer, with a certain amount of grain but nothing excessive; enough to give it that silvery sheen that DVD resolution is never quite able to capture.  The expressionistic lighting -- particularly in the War Room, Ken Adam's masterpiece of production design -- comes across particularly strongly at 1080p.

Years ago I recall telling a film-school friend that I was unimpressed by the camerawork in Dr. Strangelove -- that it seemed rather tossed-off, by Kubrick's standards.  He was aghast, and rightly so.  Watching the film now I see the usual ferocious precision of shot selection that generally accompanies Kubrick's work.  The overall pace of editing is deliberate, even languid -- each cut is therefore weighted with an impact that might seem unusual to an audience weaned on the indiscriminate coverage and rapid editing of much modern film.  It's rare, in my experience of movies, to see a mere choice of camera angle as a joke capable of eliciting laughter.  But when, just before Sterling Hayden's General Ripper is about to explain his insane scheme to Peter Sellers's straight-as-an-arrow Colonel Mandrake, Kubrick cuts to a looming low-angle close-up, it's one of the funniest effects in one of the funniest movies ever committed to emulsion.  The mere change in camera angle, combined with Hayden's thousand-yard-stare as he chomps on his massive cigar, is enough to assure us in no uncertain terms that General Ripper has gone completely around the bend.  Oh, for a time machine to travel to 1964 and visit every theater that played the film, and count how many laughs were triggered not by the dialogue but by the cut itself.

It may be blasphemy to admit it, but there's one area where my trigger-finger starts to itch and hover nervously over the "2x speed" button: the long sequence in which the crew of the B52 struggles with a technical malfunction as it races toward its target.  The scene seems endless as the crewmen (including, memorably, a young James Earl Jones) flip endless switches in an effort to open the bomb bay doors.  There's no question that, were I editing the film myself, I'd have slashed and burned this sequence, probably reducing it to a half, or even a third, of its current length.  What is Kubrick's game here?  The scene is loaded with very convincing-sounding military jargon that imparts an air of deadpan authenticity to the proceedings; is it mere pride in this dialogue, and the research effort behind it, that motivated the filmmakers to leave it all in?  Or perhaps it's purely for suspense purposes; when the film's climax provides an image that is likely to be the first thing anybody nowadays ever sees of Dr. Strangelove, long before they've actually sat down to watch the movie, it's hard to imagine a time when audiences didn't know that Slim Pickens was about to go leaping out of his B-52 astride a nuclear warhead, waving his ten-gallon hat and whooping his way into cinema history.  Perhaps the length of this sequence was really about drawing out the uncertainty, of allowing Strangelove to play as both thriller and comedy.  The only other explanation I can come up with is that the Slim Pickens shot is so iconic, so dazzling, so unforgettable, so capable of transcending the movie it's in, that Kubrick felt it deserved a nice long buildup, that it couldn't be approached too hastily.  In any case, my admiration for the film is rock-solid, but I'd have been much more liberal with the splicer here.

Dr. Strangelove begins with a title sequence that juxtaposes an in-flight refueling sequence with a lush instrumental rendition of "Try A Little Tenderness."  The effect, obviously, is to convert this military footage into a love scene, and it's an apt summation of everything that's to follow.  In scene after scene, sexuality and militarism are inextricably linked, from the enormous phallus poised between Pickens' legs as he plummets joyfully into oblivion, to the central plot itself: it is, after all, sexual dysfunction that motivates Ripper on his path to nuclear armageddon, all in the service of protecting "our precious bodily fluids."  Kubrick's strategy of playing music against the current of a scene is something he used again and again in his subsequent career, to the point where some less worshipful than myself may even say it became a cliche.  At any rate, the in-flight-refueling sequence that opens Strangelove has always seemed to me a sort of "dry run" for the magnificent shuttle-docking sequence in 2001, which similarly is scored to romantic music -- in this case, of course, Strauss's "Blue Danube" waltz, which would forever afterward be associated with that film.  I find this latter sequence more moving, because it is played for a kind of transcendent, awed delicacy, whereas the Strangelove scene aims more squarely for ironic laughter.  But the Strangelove sequence works well in its own context.

Comments

[xtien]

Good post.

I like your theories in the "blasphemy" paragraph. I can't agree with needing the 2x button myself. I always like that sequence, even at its length, for two reasons. 1) It reminds me of how seriously Fail Safe takes itself, and I like to imagine Kubrick wringing every last bit of jargon out of that moment as a way of putting his thumb in Lumet's eye (and stealing his thunder). Probably not the case...I just like to imagine it.

2) Kubrick was all about highlighting the absurd with this film. I think those busy men, with all their codes and switches,tickled his absurdity bone.

Very enjoyable read, sir.

-xtien

[Gordon Cameron]

Holy shit, a comment!

Yeah, maybe the scene is played sooooo deadpan and goes on for soooo long that it's a joke that sort of flies over my head. It's just a sequence that always sticks out for me in a film that is otherwise quite economically paced, and wonderfully unsubtle.

[Kubwi]

Here's my take: Clinton, Hitler, Jackie Chan(?), Napoleon, Che Guevara, Mozart, Michael Jordan, Picasso, Dalai Lama, A. Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, the atomic bomb(?), Stalin, Elivs(?), Columbus, Lincoln, Caesar

[Ryan]

Development of A.I. originally began with dicertor Stanley Kubrick in the early 1970s. Kubrick hired a series of writers up until the mid-1990s, including Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson and Sara Maitland. The film languished in development hell for years, partly because Kubrick felt computer-generated imagery was not advanced enough to create the David character, whom he believed no child actor would believably portray. In 1995, Kubrick handed A.I. to Steven Spielberg

[Elizabeth]

#20 "Open the goddamn pod bay doors Hal, or I'm going to bust into that ship, find the first fire axe I see, make my way down to your core meormy and give you the reprogramming of a lifetime."

[Shimul]

I don't really see peisens either. I'm just being a dick. Not a big fan of the campaign, though. Or of Diesel's or of the French Wrangler "We Are Animals" tripe or of the new "Go Forth" Levi's hooey.

[marta]

Regards for helping out, good information.

[dagmara]

Generally I don't read article on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to check out and do so! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thanks, very nice article.

[cecylia]

Definitely believe that which you stated. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people think about worries that they plainly don't know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

[Laredoute]

Joy is actually a aromatise a person afin de concerning individuals devoid of working with a handful of reduces concerning your own self. [url=http://ruezee.com/]Laredoute[/url] Laredoute

[shop]

My husband and i got fulfilled that Jordan could do his investigations while using the ideas he was given from your weblog. It is now and again perplexing to just always be making a gift of tactics which many people might have been trying to sell. And now we realize we need the blog owner to be grateful to because of that. The specific explanations you have made, the easy website navigation, the relationships you can help foster - it's got mostly great, and it's letting our son in addition to the family reckon that this article is brilliant, which is exceedingly pressing. Thanks for the whole lot!

[KcBSAWmK]

[url=http://www.F8280MYdp3l54b6fh4jciZ.com/]KcBSAWmK[/url]
KcBSAWmK
KcBSAWmK http://www.F8280MYdp3l54b6fh4jciZ.com/

[paKQRkwY]

paKQRkwY
[url=http://www.x61a3XN70pxry2g41R7yKw.com/]paKQRkwY[/url]
paKQRkwY http://www.x61a3XN70pxry2g41R7yKw.com/

[sac louis vuitton]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up sac louis vuitton http://sac360.over-blog.com/ sac louis vuitton

[seo tools]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up seo tools http://scrapebox.over-blog.com/ seo tools

[louis vuitton bags]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up louis vuitton bags http://www.lvbags188.com/ louis vuitton bags

[celine bags]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up celine bags http://gbester.me.cc/ celine bags

[cheap jordans]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up cheap jordans http://jordans.eu.pn/ cheap jordans

[coach outlet]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up coach outlet http://coach.me.pn/ coach outlet

[lebron 10]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up lebron 10 http://nikelebron33.com/ lebron 10

[prada bags]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up prada bags http://prada.com.cool4buy.com/ prada bags

[wow gold]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up wow gold http://www.wgtwowgold.com/ wow gold

[diablo 3 gold]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up diablo 3 gold http://www.flyd3.com/ diablo 3 gold

[整形美容]

Still Negative Function - Picture's Up 整形美容 http://www.feimeizx.com/index.html 整形美容

[http://www.countertops.com/]

Solid surface countertops have a lot of appeal.