50th Anniversary Screening of Dr. Strangelove – Jan. 11

A 50th anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb will launch the Allendale Branch Library’s new series “Critical Mass: The Culture of the Cold War,” on Saturday, January 11, 2014, at 2:00 p.m.  “Critical Mass: The Culture of the Cold War” will explore the impact of the Cold War on American culture through music, art, literature, motion pictures, television, and other media.
Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove is a wildly absurd “Doomsday” comedy which satirizes U.S. Cold War hysteria and the threat of nuclear Armageddon.  The film premiered in January 1964, in the depths of the Cold War era, when the U.S. and Soviet Union were engaged in a tension-filled race for nuclear arms superiority.  The movie’s plot centers on a psychotic, “Commie”-hating U.S. Air Force General (played by Sterling Hayden) who launches a nuclear air strike on the Soviet Union, while the President of the United States, his advisers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff attempt to recall the bombers to prevent nuclear annihilation.  Peter Sellers is featured in a tour-de-force performance in three roles, including Dr. Strangelove, a wheelchair-bound madman who is the President’s main nuclear strategist.  Much of the film takes place in the Pentagon’s War Room, a cavernous set featuring a circular conference table and the “Big Board,” a massive graphic-display strategic map with blinking lights, not dissimilar to an illuminated pinball game, which tracks the bombers as they approach their Soviet targets.  This amazing set inspired one of the movie’s most memorable lines, which would become a cultural reference point for future generations, delivered by the President:  “Gentlemen.  You can’t fight in here.  This is the War Room!”
Dr. Strangelove was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Peter Sellers), Best Director (Stanley Kubrick), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, and Terry Southern).  In addition to Peter Sellers and Sterling Hayden, the all-star cast includes George C. Scott, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens.
The program will also include a screening of First Time Here, a short film produced and directed by Richard Myers and also premiered in 1964.  The Grand Prize winner at the 1964 Ann Arbor Film Festival, First Time Here freely associates several dreams with the story of four women who had an atomic bomb display at a carnival.  One of America’s most renowned and accomplished independent filmmakers since the 1960s, Myers created the film as “a fantasy which represented various life cycles and, in a sense, to be a celebration of the absurd mess man has gotten himself into.”
The screening, which is free of charge and open to the public, will be introduced by Fred Glienna, a Pasadena resident and Stanley Kubrick aficionado.  Refreshments will be served.  Also featured will be a display of books and historic photographs related to the Cold War.  All books will be available for checkout to anyone with a Pasadena or Glendale Public Library card.
For further information, contact the Allendale Branch Library at (626) 744-7260 or visit pasadenapubliclibrary.net.  More details are also available at the Allendale Branch Library Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/allendalebranch
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Date & Time: Saturday, January 11, 2014, 2:00 p.m. Location: Allendale Branch Library Address: 1130 S. Marengo Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106 Information: (626) 744-7260 or visit pasadenapubliclibrary.net

-Courtesy Photo

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