Daily Dialogue — July 27, 2015

RIPPER: Mandrake?
MANDRAKE: Yes, Jack?
RIPPER: Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?
MANDRAKE: Well, no, I…I can’t say I have, Jack.
RIPPER: Vodka. That’s what they drink, isn’t it? And never water.
MANDRAKE: Well, I…I believe that’s what they drink, Jack, yes.
RIPPER: On no account will a commie ever drink water. And not without good reason.
MANDRAKE: Ah…yes. I, uh, can’t quite see what you’re getting at, Jack.
RIPPER: Water. That’s what I’m getting at. Water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven tenths of this earth’s surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water? And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids. Are you beginning to understand?
MANDRAKE: (Laughing nervously) Yes.
RIPPER: Mandrake, Mandrake have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?
MANDRAKE: Well, it…it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
RIPPER: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?
MANDRAKE: Uh, yes I have heard of that, Jack, yes.
RIPPER: Well, you now what it is?
MANDRAKE: No, no, I don’t know what it is…
RIPPER: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

— Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George, book by Peter George

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Madness. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: In one version of the script, aliens from outer space observed all of the action.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “After launching an all-out attack against the Soviet Union without authorization from the President of the US, Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper finally confides in his attache Group Captain Mandrake why he felt he had to begin World War III. Throughout the film we’ve known that a madman launched the initial attack, but it isn’t until this scene that we come to know that Gen. Ripper was a believer in the fluoridation conspiracy theory. His constant references to “precious bodily fluids” became a cultural catchphrase.”