Momism In The Manchurian Candidate

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.

Kubrick employs all techniques of humor but most notably black humor, parody, and irony. Each character is employed to be the amplified version of their real-world counterparts. Americans are military cowboys, Russians are haughty drunks, scientists are insane, and the only woman in the film happens to be a sexy secretary. Regarding the culture of nuclear threat that was present during the time of this film, the characters were necessarily exaggerated to satirize the political dynamics permissible by the

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.

The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now.

The main character in George Orwell’s 1948 novel, 1984, Winston Smith can be seen as many things. To some, he may be a hero, but to others he is a coward and a fool. Throughout the novel, Winston’s characteristics are explored, and readers are shown the reasoning behind Winston’s twisted mind. It is evident that although Winston thinks he had control over his own mind and body, this is an imagined factor. The world of 1984 is one of a totalitarian society, where no one can be trusted, and no one is safe, Winston being the primary example of one who trusted thoughtlessly.

The filmmakers’ main ideas are that the government misled and lied to the people of the U.S. so that they would believe that the atomic bomb would have no effect on their health and security, that we should question if the government should have lied to the American people, and to make us question whether or not the citizens of the U.S. would continue to be as naive as the people of the 1950’s.

The biggest and most fervent effect of the Cold War on American culture was the state of anxiety that swept the nation. Americans have always harboured a fear of radicalism entering the country and destroying any parts of the government that give power to the people, but when the Cold War begun, this fear was immensely heightened. This time period became known as the “age of anxiety”.

During Joseph Stalin’s regime of the Soviet Union, 1984, the Classic Dystopian novel by George Orwell, was burned and banned, because the book shone a negative light on communism. The book, 1984, follows the life of Winston Smith, who lives in a country called Oceania. Oceania is a totalitarian society, ruled by a government known as The Party, whose leader is called Big Brother. In Oceania, every movement and sound every person makes is constantly surveillanced, and one wrong facial expression, statement, or action can cause the ‘Thought Police’ to take the person away to never be seen again. A small percentage of the population questions The Party’s dictatorship, and the novel follows Winston’s struggles to keep his hatred of The Party

As I have stated before, the main subject of this movie is the Cold War. I did have previous knowledge of this subject such as it

“[A] mother … should play a political role through the raising of a patriotic child. The Republican Mother was to encourage in her sons civic interest and participation. She was to educate her children and guide them in the paths of morality and virtue.”

In a sense, “the red scare was basically a technique, a tool, a simplistic device for some members of the community to use against a whole set of unwelcome developments threatening those members’ conception of the perfect and proper community” (Carleton 14). The pervasiveness of the tension spread by McCarthyism was so intense, “almost any community institution may have had its own problems with the phenomenon” (Carlton 16). In 1950s America, this omnipresent evil could only be perceived as the evil of communism. Looking closer though, the extreme of McCarthyism can be described exactly this way. Just as the film portrays, those in power perceive themselves as just and benevolent. Capitalists believed themselves just, in the same way Communists believed themselves just. Leaders of both extremes saw themselves as heroes. In the contest for justice and dominance that was the Cold War, oppression was felt on both sides of the extremes. While Marco tried to save Raymond, he in turn used Raymond as a tool for justice. Raymond still had his agency controlled by Marco’s force, the same brainwashing force used by communists. Raymond serves as a symbol of the average citizen of a nation—the average, unassuming person whose agency is ultimately limited by government powers. With much chaos and confusion, just as Raymond had to realize the power being forced on him, the American people had difficulty in making sense of their world and what agency they had in the 1950s. In the attempt to feel security and control, the American government came to embody the evils they perceived in their communist enemies through the progression of McCarthyism (Carlton

During World War II and shortly after, millions of American women experienced new freedom as they lived and worked in the public sphere due to the federal government’s campaign to recruit them to produce goods for the war effort. This new rhetoric directly differed from traditional ideology of republican motherhood and paternalism in which the man is the head of the household, works in the public sphere, and women live in the private sphere instilling virtue into the children while maintaining the household. With the United States’ immediate entrance into the Cold War following World War II, came a dramatic right shift in American politics and rhetoric. This included a return to republic motherhood in which political discussions and the media, through shows like “Father Knows Best”, encouraged women to express their patriotism by staying at home and raising families. Naturally, this right shift led to the continuance of discrimination based on gender. The National Organization of Women (NOW), an organization of the New Left, challenged such discrimination. The organization’s 1966 Statement of Purpose states, “The time has come for a new movement toward true equality for all women in America, and toward a fully equal partnership of the sexes, as part of the world-wide revolution of human rights now taking place within and beyond our national borders… The time has come to

George Orwell was the pseudonym for Eric Arthur Blair, and he was famous for his personnel vendetta against totalitarian regimes and in particular the Stalinist brand of communism. In his novel, 1984, Orwell has produced a brilliant social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia, that has made the world pause and think about our past, present and future, as the situation of 1984 always remains menacingly possible. The story is set in a futuristic 1984 London, where a common man Winston Smith has turned against the totalitarian government. Orwell has portrayed the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control. The way that Winston Smith, the central

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

The science-fiction film genre serves as an excellent medium for examining shifting power structures, social paranoia and Cold War politics during the 1950s. A number of films released during this period, including: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Them (1954) and Attack of the 50ft Woman (1958), are particularly symptomatic of the social and political atmosphere of the time. These films navigate not only narrative based issues such as the threat of aliens and science experiments gone wrong; but also wider issues of the time, such as the Cold War, changes in the US film industry, urbanisation, politics, the growing power of women and most significantly, social concern about nuclear energy.