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Dr strangelove and the cold war
Dr strangelove and the cold war
Dr strangelove analysis
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Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb presents a satire of the Cold War and nuclear warfare. The film stars comedian Peter Sellers in three different roles, including the president, a Royal Air Force officer, and the title character of Dr. Strangelove—a character who does not play a major role in the action until the final scene of the film. The film itself was adapted by Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, and Terry Southern from George’s thriller novel Red Alert and was originally intended to be a drama, but was made into a satirical black comedy in the writing process (Webster 33). In the final scene, the leaders of the American government are gathered in the War Room awaiting nuclear fallout from the Soviet’s “Doomsday Machine,” since they had failed to completely prevent a nuclear strike called in by a paranoid general. The “Doomsday Machine” is a fictional deterrent that will irradiate the entire world and cause all human and animal life to go extinct for one hundred years if a nuclear bomb is detonated (Kagan 123). This analysis will focus on two persuasive speeches that are given by the title character, Dr. Strangelove—an enigmatic German scientist with an alien hand—and General Turgidson—a strong anti-Communist, American general with a strong distrust of the Soviet ambassador. In the first argument, Dr. Strangelove proposes to the President the idea of utilizing mine shafts to ensure the survival of the human race, supporting his claim with scientific reasoning and appealing to the government men’s sexual desires. In the second argument, General Turgidson strategically argues to avoid the “mine shaft gap,” in which the Soviets may use the destruction of the world as op...
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...ver, he had established himself as a major director with his earlier films. This is another element of the kairos of this film—since a modern audience will relate this with Kubrick’s later, more successful films.
In conclusion, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb uses Dr. Strangelove’s, General Turgidson’s, and Stanley Kubrick’s arguments to make a point about the absurdity of the Cold War. Through the use of the Aristotelian appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos, the two characters and the director support their arguments. The kairos of the age is very important to the film as well, since Kubrick was not a famous director at the time, the Cold War was a very serious issue, and nuclear annihilation was a believed to be a real threat: all important factors to consider when looking at this film in this day and age.
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
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.
Literature and film have always held a strange relationship with the idea of technological progress. On one hand, with the advent of the printing press and the refinements of motion picture technology that are continuing to this day, both literature and film owe a great deal of their success to the technological advancements that bring them to widespread audiences. Yet certain films and works of literature have also never shied away from portraying the dangers that a lust for such progress can bring with it. The modern output of science-fiction novels and films found its genesis in speculative ponderings on the effect such progress could hold for the every day population, and just as often as not those speculations were damning. Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis are two such works that hold great importance in the overall canon of science-fiction in that they are both seen as the first of their kind. It is often said that Mary Shelley, with her authorship of Frankenstein, gave birth to the science-fiction novel, breathing it into life as Frankenstein does his monster, and Lang's Metropolis is certainly a candidate for the first genuine science-fiction film (though a case can be made for Georges Méliès' 1902 film Le Voyage Dans la Lune, his film was barely fifteen minutes long whereas Lang's film, with its near three-hour original length and its blending of both ideas and stunning visuals, is much closer to what we now consider a modern science-fiction film). Yet though both works are separated by the medium with which they're presented, not to mention a period of over two-hundred years between their respective releases, they present a shared warning about the dangers that man's need fo...
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...
Even though Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb screened in the midst of the sobering Cold War, critics were keen on praising the film for its mastery of humor applied to such a sensitive matter. The film is exceedingly loaded with metaphors, innuendos, and allusions that nothing can be left undissected or taken for face value; the resulting effect is understood to be part of Kubrick’s multifarious theme. Kubrick has stated that what began as a “the basis for a serious film about accidental war ” eventually birthed an absurd and farcical classic comedy. The director fuses together irony, satire, and black humor to create a waggish piece but most of all the situation of the times and its gravity is the essence of what the audience finds so hilarious . Using caricatures rather than characters, exaggerated script, and sexual undertones, Kubrick manifests to the audience their own predicament and just how ridiculous it is to even consider brinksmanship as a means to preserve the American lifestyle.
As well as killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese citizens, it had also led up to the Cold War. Many theorize that the detonations weren’t for war’s sake-but for a political message directed at Soviet policy makers (1). As the Soviets had taken this action as blackmail, they began to build their own atomic weapons. International tensions being at a high, they completed their own nuclear program-compounding the risk of nuclear warfare. Along with this, a Cold War was sparked, and a battle of philosophies began. In various wars between anti-communism and pro-communism (such as the Korean and Vietnam wars), millions of people lost their lives in these proxy wars (4). As the atomic bomb had also been the causation of political tensions and another armament race, the cost far outweighed the benefit of the
...lm. With the director’s use of special effects, this proves that he had an artistic way of showing the film, as well as his use of ambiguous scenes and sequences that were provided in the film. By making it a classical cinema film, the Kubrick did a good job in proving the realism of space and all, as well as using the film order to make the movie in order. By making the film both art and classical cinema, this just makes the movie even better and the director more smarter for being able to do this in one movie.
In this essay, I will summarize two specific events that occurred within the framework of the Cold War. From there, I will analyze their potential effects if nuclear weaponry had not been involved. Lastly, I will explain how nuclear power had a positive effect on the war, due to its influence via deterrence. Finally, I will summarize the importance of nuclear power in the Cold War.
In early August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two bombs quickly yielded the surrender of Japan and the end of American involvement in World War II. By 1946 the two bombs caused the death of perhaps as many as 240,000 Japanese citizens1. The popular, or traditional, view that dominated the 1950s and 60s – put forth by President Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson – was that the dropping of the bomb was a diplomatic maneuver aimed at intimating and gaining the upper hand in relations with Russia. Today, fifty-four years after the two bombings, with the advantage of historical hindsight and the advantage of new evidence, a third view, free of obscuring bias and passion, can be presented. First, the dropping of the bomb was born out of complex infinite military, domestic and diplomatic pressures and concerns. Second, many potentially viable alternatives to dropping the bombs were not explored by Truman and other men in power, as they probably should have been. Lastly, because these alternatives were never explored, we can only conjecture over whether or not Truman’s decision was a morally just one, and if indeed it was necessary to use atomic energy to win the war.
The main argument made in this movie is that of the dangerous of the Cold War stand off we were apart of. At the time, around 1945, it was believed it would take as little as 10 large nuclear devices to destroy life on earth,1 a small fraction of the arsenal that the countries possessed. This was most clearly expressed in the fictional “Doomsday Device” metaphor. Another large piece of satire within the movie was the character background of Dr. Strangelove himself. At the time period the movie was set in it was widely believed that the US Government was using past Nazi Scientists to farther their own research in the Cold War Stand off. Dr. Strangelove can be seen as a based Nazi Scientist by his heavy German accent and also a “accidental” shout of “Hail Hitler”. Finally one of the most satired, but least obvious perhaps, was the hierarchy secret style of leadership with in the US military at the height of the Cold War, due to the renewal of The Red Scare2. The first example of this is that General Ripper was able to order a nuclear strike with no questions asked but also he is the only one who could recall the attack, a power that not even the president had. The second, less obvious, example of this is when the commander of the Army division arrested the Executive Officer he didn 't know why he needed to do so or anything about the impending nuclear strike. The movie hinted at the dangerous of this leadership style as it caused people to follow directions blindly, even when those directions were wrong. I don 't believe that this is the best film representation of the feeling of Americans during the critical time period in a historical context. Although it does show many hot topic issues that occurred during that time you may not pick up on them unless knowing before hand that it was a popular issue of the
“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.
...es the American and Soviet officials for the lack of tolerance for one another and how that led to unnecessary military tension. Additionally, he uses the story to criticize military-industry complex that led to the Nuclear Arms Race. However, this tale is not only applicable to the Cold War. The wall between the Yooks and Zooks parallels the racial divide that dominated the US. While a seemingly depressing book for children, Geisel ends the book on a hopeful note. As the Yooks and the Zooks are on the verge of destroying each other, the book ends with a blank page to follow. This blank page represents the unwritten future—that the problems of ignorance and unnecessary militarization could be changed. As a novel to the future generations, Geisel’s cliff hanger provides children the opportunity to create their own ending, both for the butter battle in in real life.
despite him being my favorite director and I just watched it few weeks ago. By watching that film you can see his unique style and the technique he used to shot that film which is amazing.
...director did not limit the film to its historical context but extended the same to romance and fantasy. From a different angle of view, the director made use of the theme to communicate with the viewers and the fictional characters can be considered as his tools. Besides, ample importance is given to historical and fictional characters. In short, the amalgamation of history, fantasy and romance constituted much to the film’s importance as a historical/fictional masterpiece.
...ion allows the film to exist unto itself with its totality defined by distinctive (independent) subjectivity. Like in many of his other movies, Kubrick litters Full Metal Jacket with symbolism and metaphor, but these directorial techniques need not be examined to enjoy or understand the plot of the movie. Although the split nature of the film expounds upon both the ability of the viewer to concentrate and be distracted by representations (logic vs. overriding emotion), it is also an exhibit for the dualist nature of man, i.e., the final marching chant. The use of a Disney song in any respect implies an association to innocence and good-will; applying it as a closing scene in a sequence that is dominated by a tirade of destruction is a more obvious symbolic gesture on Kubrick’s part. Can man be both malicious & peaceful? Or is man both? Through making both explicit distinctions and connections between mercy and vengeance in the human condition as evidenced in Full Metal Jacket as the preparation for (1st half) and execution of technique (2nd half) when existing in a war-state, Kubrick illustrates the disjunctive corollary (1st half & 2nd half) that war is organized chaos.