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Impacts of the Cuban missile crisis
Impacts of the Cuban missile crisis
Cuban missile crisis and its affect on the world
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Dr. Strangelove is in itself one of the most interesting pieces of cinema in the history of the medium. It captures a moment in world history, and the fear and hysteria that was associated with it, and translates it into the darkest of comedies. Kubrick came of age after World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, and like many others during this time period, he suffered immense anxiety about the potential for nuclear war, fearing that his hometown of New York could be a likely target, and even considered moving to Australia. He began consulting with others about the possibility of making the subject of nuclear conflict into a movie.
Kubrick came across the novel Red Alert, and instead of deciding to make the work into a film that tackled the notion of nuclear war in a serious manner, he chose to make the film a satire. This was immensely risky. Only two years after the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which nearly plunged the world into a nuclear holocaust, as the topic of nuclear war as a film subject, let alone a satire, was considered taboo and by no means socially ac...
has a knack for being able to portray an erratic man who in one instant is
In today's day and age, it's rare to see famous historical events and societal disasters not be picked apart by film directors and then transformed into a box office hit. What these films do is put a visual perspective on these events, sometimes leaving viewers speculating if whatever was depicted is in fact entirely true. I have never felt that feeling more than after I finished watching Oliver Stone’s JFK.
This episode of The Twilight Zone “The Shelter”, focuses on a neighborhood set into mass hysteria because there has been an announcement over the radio that an unidentified flying object has been spotted flying towards America. This is assumed to be a plane carrying an atomic bomb because of the tensions that were happening at this time between Russia and America during the Cold War. The tensions at the time of production for this episode were very high as the Berlin Crisis of 1961 had just taken place the summer before. This Crisis is why the writer of the episode, Rod Serling wanted to create a fictional scenario where there was an immediate threat of a nuclear war. Rod Serling was a soldier during WW2 which influenced his future stories
Stanley Kubrick’s sexual parody, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, illustrates an unfathomed nuclear catastrophe. Released in the midst of the Cold War, this 1964 film satirizes the heightened tensions between America and Russia. Many sexual insinuations are implemented to ridicule the serious issue of a global nuclear holocaust, in an effort to countervail the terror that plagued America at that time. Organizing principles, such as Kubrick’s blunt political attitudes about the absurdity of war and the satirical genre, are echoed by the film style of his anti-war black comedy, Dr. Strangelove.
"Why should the bomb be approached with reverence? Reverence can be a paralyzing state of mind. For me the comic sense is the most eminently human reaction to the mysteries and the paradoxes of life. I just hope some of them are illuminated by the exaggerations and the style of the film. And I don't see why an artist has to do any more than produce an artistic experience that reflects his thinking." (Stanley Kubrick qtd in Wainright 15)
Most writers take sides, either for or against the atom bomb. Instead of taking sides, he challenges his readers to make their own opinions based on their personal meditations. One of the key questions we must ask ourselves is “Are actions intended to benefit the large majority, justified if it negatively impacts a minority?” The greatest atrocity our society could make is to make a mistake and not learn from it. It is important, as we progress as a society, to learn from our mistakes or suffer to watch as history repeats itself.
When referring to the Cold War Novels of Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451) it is imperative to understand his mode of thinking during the time. Bradbury first captures the general sense of anxiety, as well as his own, felt in a new atomic age, in the fifth chapter of The Martian Chronicles, "The Taxpayer." This short chapter identifies fear of nuclear war as an impetus for leaving Earth...
Imagine a society where everyone has a different opinion about dropping an atomic bomb to country that they are fighting with. What is an atomic bomb? An atomic bomb is a bomb which derives its destructive power from the rapid release of nuclear energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei, causing damage through heat, blast, and radioactivity. The atomic bomb is a tremendously questionable topic. Nonetheless, these literary selections give comprehension on the decision about dropping the atomic bomb for military purposes. For example, the “Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists” by Robert Oppenheimer, argues that we should have drop the atomic bomb, “A Petition to the President of the United States” by 70 scientists, asks President
1985 brought one of the most significant works to date regarding the changing public opinion on the atomic bombs. Paul Boyer’s “By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age,” explores the creation of a nuclear-orientated cultural landscape that was a direct product of President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. The extensive amount of research and sources used by Boyer include relevant cartoons, opinion polls, radio programs, movies, literature, songs, and interviews. Boyer examines the ways in how the introduction of atomic warfare to the world drastically changed the American lifestyle in the beginnings of the new atomic era. This is the first book to diligently analyze the piles of primary sources originating from the late 1940s that are significant to
The development of the atomic bomb and chemical warfare forever changed the way people saw the world. It was a landmark in time for which there was no turning back. The constant balancing of the nuclear super powers kept the whole of humankind on the brink of atomic Armageddon. Fear of nuclear winter and the uncertainty of radiation created its own form of a cultural epidemic in the United States. During these tense times in human history officials made controversial decisions such as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dangerous biological experiments and bombs tests were carried out in the name of the greater good and national defense. Some historians and scientists argue that the decisions and acts carried out by the U.S. during World War II and the Cold War were unethical because of the direct damage they did. The United States' decisions were moral because it can be proven their actions were aimed at achieving a greater good and those that were put in potential danger volunteered and were informed of the risk.
The United States was not willing to accept defeat, although at a time like the Cold War you can never be too comfortable. The Soviet Union and the United States were at a nuclear stand off, always prepared to fire. Paranoia ran rampant throughout the countries.
“Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!” Most famously quoted from the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, this black and white satiric film produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick in 1964, is a prime example of Kenneth Waltz’s Realist theories in regards to International theory.
Many movies have been made that depict the what-ifs of a nuclear war. The two I am going to be discussing are Dr. Strangelove and Threads. Dr. Strangelove is about a paranoid Air Force base commander, orders a squadron of B-52 bombers into the Soviet Union to drop hydrogen bombs on military targets. He is the only one who knows the recall code that could be transmitted to abort the mission. At the pentagon, the U.S. President speaks with the Joint Chiefs in the war room to address the problem. General Turgidson sees this as an opportunity to completely destroy the “Commies” and prevent their inevitable retaliation. The president is a pacifist, and he invites the Russian Ambassador into the war room. Together, they call the Russian Premiere to warn of the attack and explain that it was unintentional. Over the telephone, the Premiere discloses the existence of their “doomsday device,” a large cache of atomic bombs that would automatically be detonated in the event of a nuclear strike, destroying all plant and animal life on the earth. This ultimate form of deterrence, while already on line and impossible to shut off, had not yet been announced to the world. At the Air Force Base, an Army unit infiltrates with heavy fighting to get the recall code from Ripper, but he kills himself to avoid torture. His senior officers are able to extrapolate the code “OPE” from Ripper’s scribbling on a pad of paper. The bombers respond to the code and return to base, except one whos radio receiver has been damaged. At the war room, Dr. Strangelove, a disfigured ex-Nazi scientist, suggests a plan to save a few thousand Americans by hiding them in a mine shaft for one hundred years until the radiation returns to a safe leave. Finally, the lone bomber s...
This included both the aforementioned unreliable narrator from Atomic Café, and also the use of its quick transitions between contradictory clips of various perspectives. I frequently used this quick transition technique in my film to cut back and forth between the statements and anecdotes from the Native Alaskans juxtaposed with the propagandistic clips and audio recordings produced by the Atomic Energy Commission about Project Chariot. In doing this, I hoped to strongly illustrate the disconnect between these two parties and to demonstrate the lack of understanding that they possessed for one another, which contributed to the overall disaster that ultimately befell Teller’s Project Chariot. In addition to this technique, I also imitated War Game’s realistic portrayal of fictional, but foreseeable future events in my film. This was evident mainly in my use of numerous nuclear explosions throughout my film during which the audience is unsure of whether they are actually viewing real footage of the explosion at the Project Chariot harbor site, or stock footage of other nuclear explosions. It is only near the end of the film that it is revealed that Project Chariot never detonated any atomic bombs, but up until this point in the film, the viewer has been left under suspense, a feature that helps to engage him/her and increase the effect of the film as a
The movie Thirteen Days is 2000 docudrama and is directed by Roger Donaldson who is Australian and tries to portray the film in a serious manor. The movie is based on the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and shows the perspective of the US political leadership, specifically Special Assistant to the president Kenny O’Donnell, President John F. Kennedy and the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. This film is not based on the book of the same name written by Robert F. Kennedy like the first docudrama film about the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Missiles of October; this film was meticulously researched and was based on The Kennedy Tapes: inside the white house during the Cuban Missile Crisis which was written by Ernest May and Phillip Zelikow. This is a positive for the film because Thirteen Days had the possibility to become an almost accurate film due to the declassification of important documents, but this was not the case due to the ‘Hollywood effect’ which is a key reason why this film is not history but entertainment. This film exposes how close America actually came to a Nuclear Holocaust. In this essay I shall cover all the positives and negatives to show whether or not the film is a good source of history but or actually was made for entertainment purposes. There are two main historical issues with this film that make it more entertainment than History; the first being Kevin Costner’s portrayal of Special Assistant Kenny O’Donnell, although the film is seen through his eyes and shows him to be in John F. Kennedy inner circle; in reality he may not have played an important role as the film portrays, since he was only Kennedy’s appointment secretary not the Personal advisor he is portrayed as in this film. Another historical w...