In 1964, Kubrick would break all odds with humanity’s fear of the cold war in the most obscured way. The film entitled, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb would be an essential to dark comical aspects. This film was made during the Cold War, when there was great fear over several nations of nuclear annihilation; weapons of the United States and Soviet Union were in fact capable of destroying civilizations, including the Cuban missile crisis. But to express these situations in the most absurd way possible would take courage. The film was loosely based from the novel, Red Alert by Peter George about the horrors of nuclear warfare.

Kubrick had the idea of making this a serious film of the matter, but the concept of global extermination by mankind was purely insane. So by partnering with satirical writer, Terry Southern, it was possible to make a film about lunacy over the American government. All the characters are acted in this provocative “cartoon” manner, each character is insane at a point without even realizing it. The film stars Peter Sellers playing title three roles as the English captain, Mandrake, the American president, Muffley and the ex-Nazi, Dr. Strangelove; also George C. Scott as the madding general, Sterling Hayden as the crazed base commander, always concerned about bodily fluids; and who could forgot Slim Pickens riding down with a destructive arsenal toward his death. In a way it pokes fun of the Cold War as idiotic, senseless behavior.

When Dr. Strangelove was first released, it gained an appalling uproar but it held an idea of seeing things from a political point of view, this film would also work well in modern society. A Kubrick film was not without controversy, due the fact that Kubrick broke the limitations of how a film should react toward an audience. Kubrick was trying to prove a point of how we live in a cold and stupid world.