"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," more commonly just as "Dr. Strangelove," premiered on this day in 1964. The film is seen as a key satire of the Cold War, as people grew more concerned with the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the resulting threat to all mankind. The film was a turning point in American culture, leading to more brutal takes on political culture being produced that wouldn't have been culturally acceptable just a decade earlier. It remains one of director and co-writer Stanley Kubrick's most beloved films.
Loosely based on a late-50s novel, the film's plot centers on the flurry of calls and conversations that occur after a U.S. military officer goes mad and orders nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union without the authorization of the president. That (deeply incompetent) president then scrambles to salvage the situation, only to be told that the Soviets have a doomsday machine that will go off if their country is struck with a nuke.
In the film, the U.S. manages to recall all but one of the bomber planes before their payloads are dropped. The one bomb that isn't stopped, in an image ingrained in cinematic history, is ridden to the surface like a horse by an airman waving his cowboy hat.
If you're curious, you can read an early (and mixed) review of the film in the New York Times archive.
