Dr Strangelove Analysis

The Cold War was a period from 1947 to 1991 that adhered erratic tension and constant threat of nuclear conflict between the two remaining superpowers that emerged from WWII, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick, depicts the overlying themes of the Cold War in a comedic fashion. This film’s full embodiment of the Cold War is seen through its representation of the time period, and the sheer competitiveness between the United States and Russia. Additionally, due to many of Kubrick’s movie decisions, the film has helped society

 Despite the name being a “cold war”, the possibility and threat of a real war was always looming over the heads of Americans. The Russians had now built weapons that could wipe everything of the face of the earth. What affected Americans the most was The Cuban Missile crisis. The fact that the war could start with a single press of a button really frightened the Americans. People were trembling at the sound of war, they even began to build bomb shelters in their homes that they can run to, in case of a bombing. (Document 3) Moreover, these bomb shelters became very popular during these times, I believe this displays how much this war scarred the Americans; even though, it wasn’t technically a physical war they were scarred of what it could bring to them if it progressed to the next level.

Dr. Strangelove is a comedy about the Cold War intended for a young adult or adult audience due to the topic of the Cold War not being understood easily by children. The reason for creating this film is for the comedic spin on a very serious historical event, making it truly a one of a kind movie.

The Cold War, which was considered the “years of maximum danger,” lasted from 1949-1962. This period brought an increasing sense of danger to America because the Soviet Union came into possession of an atomic bomb in 1949; an idea many Americans thought to be impossible unless the Soviet Union had a spy in the United States, which they did. Because the Soviet Union had an atomic bomb, a nuclear war became a reality. In Kenneth Rose’s “One Nation Underground” he told of rising issues associated with the Cold War and the threat of nuclear bombings. The Cold War, in conjunction with the inventions of (total destructive) bombs, generated new dangers, fears, and morality issues among Americans, which led to further increased fears.

The film Dr. Strangelove addresses the notion that nuclear weapons don’t necessarily lead to caution and deterrence by superpowers, especially if they are not aware of the capabilities of one another. If the Soviets doomsday device was made known to all, it could have been a form of risk-based or punishment-based strategy deterrence since it had the capability to kill all life on earth. These societal costs, with mass civilian casualties, would be too high for another country to ever want to engage in nuclear war with the Soviets. The problem that arose in this film was communication, the Soviets did not tell the rest of the world they had this capability and thus it was unable to act as a form of deterrence.

Strangelove was primarily written to depict the military heads of the United States as fools for their fear during the Cold War, rather than the uncertainty of the public. Stanley Kubrick, the director, mocks many of the attitudes of the public during the Cold War and it’s various events. He knew that because of the threat of mutually assured destruction, and the fact that any single entity launching a nuclear war would be ensuring it’s own destruction, that the Cold War wouldn’t amount to anything but “military buffoons” touting their weapons, seeing who can puff their chest the highest. The threat of mutually assured destruction had already been addressed by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967 in his speech titled Mutual Deterrence, where he claimed “It is important to understand that assured destruction is the very essence of the whole deterrence concept. We must possess an actual assured-destruction capability, and that capability also must be credible. The point is that a potential aggressor must believe that our assured-destruction capability is in fact actual, and that our will to use it in retaliation to an attack is in fact unwavering. The conclusion, then, is clear: if the United States is to deter a nuclear attack in itself or its allies, it must possess an actual and a credible assured-destruction capability.” This speech was given three years after the release of Dr. Strangelove, showing how accurate Kubrick was in his ideology that the threat of

During World War II the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as Allies against the Axis Powers, however the relationship between the two was tense. The Axis Powers were an alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan. The United States government was wary of the Soviets because they were communists and Americans were concerned about the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. The political systems of the two countries prevented them from reaching a mutual agreements such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which then resulted in war. This nuclear war had a huge affect on the society, along with communism, education and even the Space Race. Hysteria was caused in result of the threat communism, which was later called the Red Scare. The Cold War impacted

In the 1950’s during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency which was also the peak of the Cold War, The Soviet Union’s development and testing of WMD’s (Atomic, Nuclear and H-Bomb) raised fears of war around the world. The Soviet Union started to expand their idea of communism to democratic nations in Europe, this raised tensions with the U.S. which heighten fear and anxiety of the American public of an imminent nuclear/Atom/H-Bomb war between the super powers.

Dr.Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, was made in the 1960s in the midst of cold war tension between Soviet Russia and the U.S. In this movie an Army General named Jack Ripper commands B-52 bombers to nuke Russia. The reason was because the General believed that the Soviets had used fluoride in the American water supply and that led to the corruption of American body fluids. After it is discovered that he is insane the U.S. contacts Russia, who sends their prime minister to investigate, only to find out that they have a dooms day device that is set to go off in any attempt to nuke them. They successfully recall all of the planes except for one that changes direction and doesn’t nuke its intended recipient but another, still setting off the Russian dooms day device. Ultimately they realize the mistake they made and chose to move thousands of the population into mines deep underground and only after a

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is a dark comedy film by Stanley Kubrick. The film deals with nuclear war which was a hot topic during the 50 's and 60 's. Americans were very paranoid about communists and nuclear war at this time. This film shows how ridiculous the paranoia about nuclear war through a sexual relationship allegory. The allegory deals with the masculine and the feminine. The masculine is an important part of the nuclear war efforts while the feminine takes a backseat. The feminine is displayed in men as a negative. The sexual allegory becomes funny through

The threat of nuclear war in the 1950's was real and was one that was on the mind nearly every person in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After the end of the Second World War the world can be seen to be split into two sides, the East and the West, Communism and Democracy. After the Second World War the Soviet Union became paranoid with the West as well as the United States become paranoid of the Communist East, and after the Soviets had made their first nuclear bomb this created massive friction between the NATO alliance and the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc. Only after the soviet union had obtained the hydrogen bomb and began to stockpile nuclear warheads in the 1950's did the real fear of nuclear annihilation begin to

The “Cold War” was a unique time period were paranoia ran high and the world was at a stalemate as it watch the competition between the two world superpowers,(U.S. and the U.S.S.R.).

This movie definitely displayed our thoughts and emotions dealing with the Cold War, right up to the very end. Our sentiments

Film can be a very useful catalyst in teaching how not to treat patients. In Analyze This and Analyze That, we see very extensive examples of this throughout the film. Through farce and lampoon, we see the in this disjunctive way what proper CBT, criminal therapy and combating recidivism is all about.

“Dr.Strangelove” is an 1964 film based on the argument of rational; deterrence theory by Kenneth Waltz. Many of the events that occurred during the film also complimented many of the critiques of rational deterrence theory later made by Scott Sagan. Nuclear weapons have been an important issue for debate for years. The spotlight of nuclear weapons was an important factor during the cold war nevertheless the question of nuclear weapons remains afterwards. The question of both the spread and contraction of nuclear weapons remains a strong issue because of the opposing theories that argue against the question of the spread, contraction furthermore the total dissolution of nuclear weapons.