At the beginning of Dr. Strangelove it seemed like a quite serious war movie, for the first five minutes. However, after General Ripper’s first initial call for “Plan R” things very quickly descend into madness. Both General Ripper and Major Kong speak to their subordinates after “Plan R” has been put in place; and, while it seems like a very stereotypical call-to-action speech, it becomes very ridiculous when you realize they are preparing to die without a reason to. The film begins very calmly, at a standstill until Ripper consumed by paranoia decides to go straight to a doomsday call. The paranoia of the US Military is so perverse in the film that the idea of letting people die is overlooked in favor of destroying communists. Specifically, the movie does play around with the ides of “Mutually Assured Destruction”, and how that is clearly not enough to protect people from nuclear weapons. It becomes quickly clear that neither the US or the USSR really meant to keep to the “Mutually Assured Destruction” strategy as the Russians build a doomsday device that will detonate automatically and cannot be prevented (49:36). Part of the “fun” of the film is that nuclear weapons are almost treated as toys. When General Turgidson is listing off options after telling the President what Ripper did, he speaks of nuclear weapons like the number of M&Ms they have over the USSR, and how they would still have enough left to clean up after destroying the USSR’s bases. Furthermore, the idea of human life is even more so poked fun at when Dr. Strangelove suggests starting a new life underground as opposed to possibly trying to save the American people. While I found this film to be pretty funny, it made me wonder how someone viewing this film after its release might feel. It was released during the Cold War. Which leads me to question, how would someone watching this in 1964 America feel? About their government? About their safety? About the use of nuclear weapons? Do you think it would be easy to take this film only as a satire, or would it leave you with even more fear walking out of the theater? I was also wondering what the significance of Major Kong’s cowboy hat at the beginning of the film and his eventual riding of an H-Bomb?
Through the Iron Curtain
When watching this film, I was left with similar questions. Though this film was obviously filled with lots of humorous moments, there are also many elements that I as a viewer would interpret as scary. For example, General Turgidson’s complete disregard for life as he states that in an all out war with the Soviet Union would result in ‘only’ 10 to 20 million dead would not be comforting to me at all. The conflicting ideas of what is more important (life and compromise vs. winning a war despite the costs) among the politicians and generals does little to alleviate the very real concern of nuclear warfare for me, even behind the satirical language. Perhaps, the plot felt too impossible for general viewers in 1964 to believe, especially coupled with potential propaganda intended to comfort Americans and paint the Soviet Union as every American’s greatest enemy. However, coming from the perspective we have in 2021 and after more research, knowing the very real reality that events like those in the film were possible makes it near impossible for me to accept the film as pure satire.