Jennsblogger: Dr. Strangelove

The cover of Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove is a somewhat comical thriller. Every situation that should be serious in the movie isn't played seriously. The credits in the beginning look like a child could have written them. The Presidents phone call to Dimitri goes back and forth in a goofy and awkward manner. I'm not sure if it's because the movie is old or not but the plane looks like a toy and when Mandrake has to make a collect call, the entire call/situation is humorous. A U.S. General named Jack Ripper disobeys the rules when he commands his B-52 plane to bomb Russia. Ripper believes that communists are out to harm their bodily fluids. The other two settings in the movie are inside the B-52 where they frantically check to make sure everything is perfect inside the plane before executing “plan R” and in the “war room” where the President and many others try to get a hold of the B-52 and stop the bombing so that the Doomsday machine doesn’t go off. I found it rather strange that there was only one women in the film, showing a sense of alienation. When she's posted in Playboy the camera angle is down on her like she is below the men. Women were also not a part of the plan the one lady just carried information back and forth between the two men. It was a little ironic that love symbolism creates life but missiles destroy it and they were very related in the film. Camera angles that were very obvious were an aerial view of the war room showing openness and a poker game look, and also the camera angle would look down on Mandrake when he was with Ripper to show Ripper as more superior.

The war room set up like a giant poker game

STILLMAN

A majority of Stillman's analysis focuses on the cultural references that surrounded Kubrick at the time and how he used them in his film. Stillman suggests, “Kubrick would have easily had access to the 17 February issue of Time, and may have even been able to watch some of the East Coast television programs it recommended” (Stillman). That Time magazine issue had features on a missile gap flap. Stillman also brings up the similarities between Dr. Strangelove and the novel Dr. No. “We learn that the eponymous villain lost his hand, changed hs German name upon assuming U.S. citizenship, and wanted to force missiles off their intended courses and targets” (Stillman). This sounds very familiar to the character Dr. Strangelove who has a gloved hand and who also changed his name upon assuming U.S. citizenship, and also talked a lot about missiles. Kubrick also set up the war room table like a game of poker which relates back to Dr. No when Bond says, “It should be like a poker table: there’s the president, the generals and the Russian ambassador playing a game of poker for the fate of the world” (Stillman).

RICHARDSON

Richardson analyzes Dr. Strangelove and brings up amusing moments in the dark satire. He says “the opening sequence in which two bombers copulate in mid-air by means of a refueling tube while the song “Try a Little Tenderness” plays, is a brilliant, quick statement of the film’s manner and intention” (Richardson). Richardson’s main focus in his analysis seems to be about the characters and what humor they bring to the film. Richardson says, Jack D. Ripper is the most rounded character in the film because he’s “a paranoid Air Force General obsessed with his belief in Communist conspiracy against American “bodily fluids” (Richardson). He finds the actual character Dr. Strangelove to do strange things such as being able to rise and walk at the world’s end as creating “the sort of humorous abandon that is strained for but not quite reached in other moments” (Richardson). Richardson also finds the humor throughout the movie to be overplayed and he thinks the film lacks artistry. I agree with Richardson here. Some of the humor didn’t seem to fit where it should or there was too much of it when it was supposed to be more serious. Richardson referred to the humor as “a tired comic device, like banana peels and baggy pants” (Richardson).