Dr. Strangelove corrections

Dr. Strangelove (1964) - 13 corrections

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring George C. Scott, James Earl Jones, Peter Sellers (add more)

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

Pictures

Corrections

As the B-52 approaches the target and the bomb is dropped, the details of the ICBM base (silos, building, connecting roads, etc.) are visible. These details are then suddenly absent with the substitution of stock footage when the bomb explodes. [The scene cuts from an overhead shot taken from a few thousand feet in the air to an extremely wide shot taken from many miles away. In the fireground is a low ridge. This obscures the lowest part of the explosion and all details of the relatively small target.]

Time

In the scene outside the where they U.S. Army soldiers are attacking the Generals headquarters, you see one American soldier firing at the headquarters building using a WWII era German Army MP40 Schmeisser submachine gun. Although not uncommon for American solders during WWII to use captured enemy weapons in a tight situation, it certainly would not be issued or allowed in the stateside peacetime early 1960's. [That's not a Scmeisser MP40 - it's a US M3A1 "Grease Gun". The design was based heavily on the MP40 and they look similar.]

Time

When the B-52 was hit by the missile, it sustained a great deal of damage. However, the plane looks perfectly intact in all of the subsequent aerial shots (except for the black smoke). [That's because it wasn't hit by the missile. It detonated some distance away and the damage was caused by shockwaves.]

Time

When, at the end, Dr. Strangelove is explaining his plan and his hand goes out of control, you can see the Russian diplomat behind him (on the left) trying desperately not to laugh. [Look again - the 'desperate' attempt not to laugh continues after an edit. It's deliberate - the Russian ambassador is trying not to show his derision at an American acting like a lunatic. He is a diplomat, after all.]

Time

The opening shot of this movie is a night shot of Berbelson Air Force Base. The very next shot is of a rotating radar antenna in broad daylight. [Followed by shots of B52s in flight and other militaria. There is no indication that the radar installation is at Burpleson - it's part of the world wide military machine, the theme of the film, and it could be anywhere.]

Time

If you look past General Turgidson during one of his speeches at the round table, you can see a 'stand-in' Dr. Strangelove sitting on the far side, long before the character is even introduced in the story. [Why is Strangelove being there a mistake? He's a top presidential advisor, of course he's going to be in a meeting of such importance, especially since the meeting is about a nuclear strike and Strangelove appears to be very knowledgable about Nuclear weapons. Just because he doesn't have anything to say until he's properly introduced doesn't mean he wouldn't be there, waiting to be called upon.]

Corrected by Gary O'Reilly Time

The Russian ambassador's Russian is awful. The accent is terrible, many words are either pronounced wrong or just incomprehensible (I am Russian), and pronunciation of some phrases is stereotypically American - such as "dos visdanya" or "niet". [He's not the Russian ambassador - he's the Soviet Ambassador, and the distinction is an important one. It also explains his poor spoken Russian. He could be a native of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, The Ukraine, or Uzbekistan, all of which were part of the Soviet Union in the sixties and all of which had their own languages (and many, many regional dialects, too.) So, Russian could be a second language to him and he might not speak it well. (As ambassador to the U.S.A., his spoken English would be far more important anyway.)]

Time

The so-called cobalt chlorium (.) G, which is supposed to be used in the Russian doomsday device, has, according to the Russian ambassador, a half-life period of 93 years. He then states that it would contaminate Earth for 93 years. However, per definition half of the radioactivity would still be left after this period. [He's an ambassador, a professional diplomat, not a nuclear physicist. The mistake he makes about 'half-lives' is a very common one amongst laymen.]

Time

The B-52 approaches its target at a rate of 15 seconds per mile (240 mph), which is a bit too slow for an airplane. [240mph is a slow but reasonable speed for the B-52 in the low-altitude attack mode. The airplane lands at approximately 120 mph. Max level flight is about 550 mph, but the bomb bay doors tend to come off at that speed.]

Corrected by 5thgroup Time

In the scene when Grp. Captain Mandrake confronts General Ripper in the latter's office with the knowledge that there is no Russian attack, he salutes and then turns to leave but finds both exits locked. He then returns to Ripper's desk and asks for the doorkey and the recall code for the planes that are en route to Russia. He hadn't asked for the code before trying to leave, yet he was prepared to leave without it. [Mandrake has just recognized that his superior officer has gone insane and launched a nuclear attack on another country that will lead to the destruction of the US and possibly all mankind. He can be forgiven for being a bit rattled.]

Time

It takes practically the whole movie for the lines on the 'Big Board' to approach their targets. When the planes are recalled, these lines beat a pretty hasty retreat. [It's called time compression. Films don't show a narrative of every single minute that passes. If Dr. Strangelove did this it, the film would be about forty hours long.]

Time

When the military attacks Ripper's base, Ripper and Mandrake are barricaded in Ripper's office. Ripper breaks out his window and starts firing at the advancing soldiers with what appears to be a Browning M2 .50 cal machine gun. That's all well and good, except notice how and where he supports the barrel with his hand. The Browning is air cooled. That wasn't a very smart place to hold it unless he was actually trying to burn his hand off. [It's actually a water-cooled M1917 .30 machine gun, and you can in fact hold it as Ripper is doing. Not for long mind you, but he could fire it as is without any problem.]

Time

When the B-52 is flying low over Russia, the shadow on the ground is a B-17, a World War II propeller driven bomber. [The plane was actually a B-29, another WWII bomber which has a similar profile but is noticably longer and does not have a stepped forward fusalage. The shadow makes it seem like the fusalage is stepped but this is due to the shadow of one of the inboard engines.]

Time

Click here to send this page to a friend...

Your name
Your email
Personal message	Take a look at this: http://www.moviemistakes.com/film380/corrections
Addresses (Separate each one with a comma)
Addresses are not kept or used for anything other than this one notification.