We'll Meet Again Some Sunny Day: A New M/U Film Chat
Note: It's been nearly a year since we last got together to live chat the final season of Game of Thrones. Early in April, we reconstituted the Monadnock Underground Film Soiree to view currently-relevant films and share our thoughts with you. For our first film, we watched Kubrick's 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The following is the transcript of our chat conducted live while watching the movie, lightly edited for readability.
Jonel: For any who have not seen this swell film, get ready for Peter Sellers to dazzle you with a multifaceted performance as three different characters.
John: Silent opening crawls kind of suck
Chris: such peaceful cloud cover
John: Sexiest plane refueling ever
Chris: hahaha
it really is a lovely opening sequence
Leah: It is!
Chris: a very beautiful, graceful dance of the death machines
when I was young I always wanted to work in like a Military Science Room like that
John: Where’s Michael Corleone when you need him
Chris: hahaha I can only ever see Sterling Hayden as the Captain McClusky
Jonel: Ahahahaah
John: “How’s the Italian food in this restaurant?”
James Earl Jones in his film debut!
Chris: oh I don't think I knew that
Jonel: Slim Pickens was a real life rodeo star.
John: Slim Pickens should have won an Oscar for Major Kong
Jonel: So good
John: Even if Kubrick never told him the film was a comedy
Peter Sellers was originally supposed to play the role in addition to his other three but he injured himself and more importantly couldn’t do a very good southern accent
Jonel: True
Leah: Slim Pickens was the perfect choice
Jonel: For sure
John: Major Kong was intersectional
Chris: hahahaha I love that this entire scene is relayed by the underwear-clad secretary
Jonel: AHahhahaahah
John: Hahahaha
Jonel: Ahahaahahahaha
Chris: "You just start your countdown"
John: Noted anti-communist General Jack D. Ripper
I do like saloon style doors in that military computer room
I could go for a cigar right now
Chris: same
and it's the right thing to smoke while starting a nuclear war
grain alcohol and rainwater
John: And help yourself to whatever you’d like
Jonel: He said he smoked like 100 cigars over the course of the shoot because of all the takes every day.
Chris: hahaha nice
Jonel: For like weeks on end!!
Chris: scary thing was, there were a LOT of generals who insisted at the time that nuclear war was inevitable and the right strategic move was to strike first, and early
Jonel: For sure
John: Does anyone think an underground war room like this actually exists?
Chris: hopefully
Jonel: Yes
Chris: otherwise I don't feel safe
...fluids
John: Hahahaha
Jonel: Ahahahahaha
AHahahahaa
John: I wonder if President Merkin Muffley was a Democrat or a Republican
Chris: he looks like a democrat
Zoë: Very cool glasses
Chris: yeah way ahead of his time on the clear frame glasses
John: My favorite part
Three lipsticks, three nylon stockings
Chris: hahahahaha
John: The original line was “a fella could have a pretty good time in DALLAS but they changed it to Vegas because of the whole JFK thing
Jonel: I didn't know that!
Chris: oh damn, yeah
another hilarious phone conversation
John: Sellers is so good
Jonel: Yeah, so good!!
John: He sells this phone conversation so well
Jonel: Which is hard
Phone acting, convincingly, is super tough.
Chris: I have seen a commie have a glass of water
Jonel: Ahahahahaha
Leah: So have I. Many!
John: I drink a lot of water
Leah: (I lived in a communist country for a bit.)
John: Jack D. Ripper would’ve loved Alex Jones
Though he’s kind of right
Why do we need flouride?
Chris: "in the name of her majesty and the continental congress"
Jonel: AHahaahahahah
Chris: the redcoats are coming
Jonel: The dude SNAPPED
John: “The redcoats are coming”
Here he is
Chris: it's always funny to me that he's there the whole time until now but we don't talk to him
Jonel: YES
John: People think he’s based on Kissinger though he was relatively obscure at the time. Werner von Braun and a few others were inspiration for Dr. Strangelove
Chris: yeah I was gonna say, this is too early to be based on Kissinger
Jonel: It's the best name ever.
Chris: there were germans everywhere in intelligence and defense in the 50s and 60s
Jonel: And NASA. All V-2 guys.
John: Operation Paperclip!
Jonel: von Braun being one, of course.
Leah: “Women sense my power”
Jonel: Aahahahahahaha!
John: I forgot how uneventful Ripper’s death was
If you’re going to instigate nuclear Armageddon least you can do is stick around and see it through
Jonel: One would think so.
John: It’s what I would do
Jonel: He put a lot of work into that scheme.
The satisfaction is seeing it come to fruition.
Zoë: I don't know if we can trust what you would do, John, you're a water-drinking commie
Jonel: AHahaahahahah
Chris: you've been fluoridated
John: I may be a commie but you can quote me on this: fuck fluoride.
Imagine being named Bat Guano
Jonel: This guy is the best. Col Bat Guano.
Chris: "if that is your name"
Jonel: He's as whacked out as Ripper, just in a different way.
John: prevert>pervert
Jonel: Ahahhahaahah
John: A collect call to the president
Jonel: He better be good for it.
Chris: "You're gonna have to answer to the coca-cola company"
Jonel: The BEST
Chris: this is an appropriate movie for our time
Jonel: Agreed!
John: It so is
Jonel: I have heard the book and film The Stand by Stephen King is.
Appropriate for our time, that is.
Zoë: Totally, while still being so perfectly situated in its own time.
Jonel: I should read it this month of quarantine
John: Kubrick purposely used George C. Scott’s most ridiculous takes
Zoë: (Oh, I don't know about The Stand, you should read it and report back!)
John: Which pissed him off for years until he realized Kubrick was right
One of the few people Kubrick didn’t make do tons of multiple takes was R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket
James Earl Jones could’ve never done Darth Vader in ‘64
Chris: "Dear John"
Jonel: True. His voice does not have the right timbre, yet. I grew up a real bad stutterer. acting and pretending helped him grow out of it he said.
Sorry, *he
Ahahahahaha
Not me
Chris: I was gonna say, how did YOU get over yours?
Jonel: AHahahahaah
Yyyyyyy yes
Chris: My favorite James Earl Jones performance is Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Jonel: I have not seen that in forever, but I love that movie.
Chris: one of my all time favorites
Slim Pickins definitely should've won an oscar for this
John: “What about Major Kong”
He didn’t seem to mind
The abandonment of the so called monogamous relationship
Jonel: (Clapping)
Chris: we'll meet again
Jonel: the ultimate quarantine song!!
John: I was thinking that today
Chris: some sunny day
John: Does everyone realize the significance of “Mein Fuhrer I can walk”
Chris: no
Jonel: no
Zoë: Nope
Leah: No!
John: Dr. Strangelove is a former Nazi obviously and their mineshaft plan of selective breeding...eugenics.
It means some of that Nazi ideal can continue
It also means he really wants to get laid
Jonel: Ahahahaha
Chris: Yeah, that makes sense
Zoë: Hahahah ooh yeah ok, I was expecting like a historical reference. But that does make sense.
Like that he was quoting someone, I mean.
Leah: Yeah, that’s what I was expecting too.
John: Hahahaha no.
Zoë: So my confession is that I had never seen this entire movie, so thank you all for making it finally happen!
John: That’s just an interpretation, but it’s my preferred one
Jonel: Yes, it was super fun!!
Chris: Yeah, I share that, that's clearly the outcome here.
Oh wow, I didn't know that! Cool.
Yeah, let's watch another movie next week sometime. Plague-wise we should probably watch The Seventh Seal
Jonel: Let me just check my schedule.......yeah, I'm good.
Zoë: Oh, I have never seen that either, and I want to
Jonel: I have never seen it.
John: I’ve always wanted to dance macabre
Chris: Me too! it's been years since I've watched it all the way through.
Plus Max von Sydow just died.
Jonel:
https://youtu.be/YyknBTm_YyM