Do you recall the classic film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb? For our younger readers, this was a 1964 black comedy film that satirized the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. The idea is that a rogue United States Air Force general orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The U.S. President tries to call the strike off, but one of the B-52 bombers tasked with the assignment is damaged, fails to receive the recall order, and battles on to complete its mission. This film was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick and stared Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Slim Pickens.
The reason I mention this here is that my chum Jay Dowling just sent me a link to something called NUKEMAP. On the off chance you want to see what kind of damage a nuclear bomb will cause, you can enter the name of a city, select a yield in kilotons (or select a preset — I chose a North Korean bomb that was tested in 2013), and click the “Detonate” button to see what the damage will be (fireball, radiation, blast radius, etc.). Not surprisingly, I selected Huntsville, Alabama, which is where I currently hang my hat. Having seen the result, I just dispatched the butler to fetch my lead-lined undergarments.
As an aside, thinking of Dr. Strangelove reminded me of another classic movie of this ilk — the 1974 American science fiction comedy film Dark Star, which was directed and produced by John Carpenter. In this case, the scout ship Dark Star is 20 years into its mission of searching nearby solar systems to find and destroy “unstable planets” that may threaten future human colonization. They do this using talking bombs equipped with artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, after 20 years in space, the crew are all a bit “space crazy” and the ship is more than a little dilapidated. During a “space storm” the ship is hit by a huge electromagnetic pulse causing Bomb #20 to receive an erroneous order to deploy. This leaves the crew having to have philosophical arguments with the bomb trying to persuade it to not explode. And then things start to go pear-shaped.
So, over to you. Do you remember watching either of these films? Also, did you resist using the NUKEMAP application to drop a virtual nuclear bomb on your hometown to see what the effect would be?
Remember Vasili Arkhipov, the man who saved the world in 1962? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov
There is a man whose hand I would have loved to have shaken.
I did see Dr. Strangelove, a strange movie but I loved it.
Did you see Dark Star? If not, you really should watch it as part of your education in “the classics”
I missed Dr Strangelove when it first came out, but I have seen it 2 or 3 times on TV. I love it and would willingly watch it again. Peter Sellers was brilliant in his multiple roles.
I did drop Fat Man on my home town. It would not have affected (according to the map)my family home, but would have damaged my school. Given my dislike of the establishment, I gave a silent cheer.
Peter Sellers was indeed brilliant — did you see him in The Mouse That Roared, which started off as a 1955 Cold War satirical novel by Irish American writer Leonard Wibberley?
This launched (no pun intended) a series of satirical books about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
A 1959 movie version starred Peter Sellers playing three roles: Duchess Gloriana XII; Count Rupert Mountjoy (the Prime Minister of Grand Fenwick); and Tully Bascomb (the military leader of Grand Fenwick).
I had forgotten that one. Yes I also saw it on TV and enjoyed it.
I started thinking about the different memories I have of him aside from the Goon Show.
There was the joke song “Goodness Gracious Me” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUZCXaStvnc ) from “The Millionairess” I never saw the movie, but the song seemed to be on the radio every day when I was a kid.
And there was the movie “The Party” which achieved cult status amongst my peers and we all went about muttering “Birdie num num” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajMqhpCBPAY). I never remembered the early oscilloscope that makes a guest appearance.
I suppose these days Sellers’ performance as an Indian is politically incorrect. Look at the uproar over Hank Azaria’s accent for the Simpsons’ character Apu.
And who could forget the bumbling Inspector Clouseau?
However, I believe Sellers’ greatest movie performance was in “Being There”
Sellers would also pop up in unexpected places. He played the ukelele on this piece by Steeleye Span (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4o_4FqMM0 ) and Goon Show fans should pay attention at 1.20 and 2.32
I used to like Steeleye Span — I heard about him playing with them — I wish I could have seen it live 🙂
but was the movie as good as the book?
There you have me because I never read the book — I’ll add it to my list of “Things to do” 🙂