Culver City, CA (January 18, 2009) – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment invites you to re-live Stanley Kubrick’s satirical comedy Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb when it explodes on Blu-ray High-Def June 16, 2009 for the SRP $38.96. The 45th Anniversary release will feature a 32-page booklet included in a deluxe Blu-ray book package. This celebrated film features a cadre of premier talent whose performances are taken to new heights in high definition. Peter Sellers (The Pink Panther, Lolita) stars in this uniquely dark comedy and displays his talent and versatility as he portrays the roles of British Exchange Officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, and Dr. Strangelove, the wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi nuclear war expert. The story follows paranoid and utterly mad U.S. Air Force General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who sends bombers to destroy the U.S.S.R. which will unleash a cataclysmic series of events ultimately leading to total nuclear Armageddon.
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is an inimitable film that demonstrates political satire at its finest. Nominated for four Oscars® including Best Picture[1], Best Director[2], Best Actor in a Leading Role[3] and Best Screenplay[4], this cult classic was made to be seen in high definition. Exclusive to the 45thAnniversary Special Edition Blu-ray is a “The Cold War: Picture-in-Picture (PiP) and Graphic-in-Picture (GiP) Pop-Up Trivia Track” – while the movie is playing, optional pop up graphics (GiP) provide background information on the film, and occasionally video (PiP) pops up with cast and crew commentary. Other special features include an inside look intoDr. Strangelove, an interview with former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and a remembrance of Peter Sellers.
Synopsis
Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy classic about an “accidental” nuclear attack received four Oscar® nominations (including Best Picture, 1964). Convinced the Commies want to pollute America’s “precious bodily fluids,” a crazed general (Sterling Hayden) orders a nuclear air strike on the U.S.S.R. As his aide, Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) scrambles to unlock a recall code to prevent the bombing, the U.S. President (Sellers again) calls a drunken Soviet Premier on the hotline claiming the proposed attack is a silly mistake, while the President’s advisor (an ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers once again) verifies the existence of a dreaded Doomsday machine – a retaliatory device designed by the Soviets to end the human race once and for all!
BLU-RAY DISC SPECIAL FEATURES:
· The Cold War: Picture-in-Picture and Pop-Up Trivia Track – Embark on a journey into the very heart of the Cold War exploring, in fascinating detail, the military and political world in which Dr. Strangelove takes place. What did the film get right and where did it take liberties with established military procedures? And just how close were we in the early 1960s to a real atomic exchange? This multimedia experience includes Graphic-in-Picture pop-up trivia and Picture-in-Picture commentary that help shed some light on an era of secrets and heightened paranoia, all of which helped inspire this classic film. Picture-in-Picture interviews include:
o Thomas Schelling (RAND* Corp. employee during late 1950s and early 1960s – wrote article on novel “Red Alert” that prompted Kubrick’s interest in adapting the book to a film)
o Richard A. Clarke (Author of “Against All Enemies,” counter-terrorism and command and control systems expert)
o Daniel Ellsberg (RAND Corp. employee during late 1950s and early 1960s; consultant to JFK admin., Dept. of Defense)
o George Quester (Professor of Government and Politics, University of Maryland; expert on nuclear proliferation, deterrence, and nuclear diplomacy)
o David Alan Rosenberg (Temple University professor; Historian of Nuclear Strategy; ex-military)
· Four Documentaries
o No Fighting in the War Room or: Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat
o Inside: Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
o The Art of Stanley Kubrick: From Short Films to Strangelove
· Best Sellers Or: Peter Sellers and Dr. Strangelove Remembered
· An Interview with Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
· Interviews with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott
*The RAND Corporation (Research And Development) is a non-profit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces.
