Dr. Strangelove

Dr.

Strangelove is a person who displays disturbing enthusiasm for nuclear weapons or military catastrophe, from the title character of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film *Dr.

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

The wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi scientist advises the president during an accidental nuclear crisis while struggling to suppress his arm from giving a Nazi salute.

The term characterizes someone whose technical expertise about destruction seems to override normal human fear of it: The Pentagon's Dr. Strangeloves are gaming out tactical nuclear strikes again.

film

Kubrick

Peter Sellers · George C. Scott · B-52 · screenplay · cinematography · Columbia Pictures · 1964 · dark humor · absurdist · ensemble cast

nuclear

doomsday machine

Weapon destroying everything automatically

  • bombExplosive device or disaster
  • falloutPost-blast atmospheric particles
  • deterrencePrevention via threatened consequences

mutually assured destruction · ICBM · warhead · missile · radiation · annihilation · apocalypse · megaton · retaliation · first strike

character

wheelchair

Seated conveyance for mobility-impaired

German accent · duality

satire

parody

Satirical imitation

dark comedy · political satire · social commentary · farce · gallows humor · ridicule · brinksmanship · hawkishness · jingoism · lunacy

military

Pentagon

U.S. military headquarters

  • bomberExplosive-delivery aircraft or saboteur
  • fluoridationAdding tooth-strengthening compound to water
  • commandAuthoritative instruction given

defense · military-industrial complex · chain of command

Categories
Opposites
tone toward nuclear war

Dr. StrangeloveThreads

Strands for sewing

Hiroshima · The Road · WarGames

worldview on nuclear deterrence

Dr. StrangeloveHenry Kissinger

cinematic style

Dr. StrangeloveThe Manchurian Candidate

WarGames

Family

love, strange, lovely, loving, loved, stranger, lovers, strangely, strangeness

Familiarity
Top 500,000
Profile
Timeless · Concrete · Rated PG-13