10 Best Performances In Stanley Kubrick's Films

In a film that equates male sexuality with war, Gen. Buck Turgidson is perhaps the most sex-crazed of them all. By dialing the general’s warmongering antics up to 11, George C. Scott injects much of the comedic absurdity into Dr. Strangelove’s dark subject matter.

Scott’s exaggerated gestures and hyperactive energy make Turgidson feel like a big kid who wants to play with his toys. The military hawk can barely contain his excitement when describing one of his bombers, and he clings onto his military plans like someone’s trying to copy off his homework.

Turgidson's trigger-happy nature could easily make him repulsive to an audience, but Scott’s comedic timing is so spot on that you can’t help but love the amoral dimwit. His bug-eyed facial expressions are pitch-perfect, and the way he shouts "look at the big board!" is a perfect representation of Dr. Strangelove's ridiculous sense of humor.

While Scott’s performance is over the top, he still makes Buck feel like a real, extremely flawed human being. The fact that such a reactionary moron exists so high up in the ranks of the U.S. military adds urgency to the dire situation of nuclear annihilation. Dr. Strangelove is all about the failure of the “human element,” and Scott’s oafish performance makes Turgidson a perfect representation of that failure.