Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove is intriguing when studied as a “moral protest of revulsion against the dominant cultural paradigm in America.” While the Hays Code constructed industry standards of appropriateness, Dr. Strangelove not only presented many sexual references, a subject of censorship, but also was satirically critical of the government. This film questioned the understanding of the United States as a relatively good place, rattling the “Ideology of Liberal Consensus” by referencing World War II movies as well as confronting hypocrisy in the American political system.

In the “age of conformity,” Kubrick points out the stupidity in American. World War II movies aggressively promoted a binary narrative, portraying the Americans as heroes against a corrupt enemy. This helped in legitimizing the Cold War and nuclear proliferation. Media plays a huge role in public perception of government action and society in general. Some sources at the time made argument for nuclear war as an option. News and World Report carried a side story “about how well survivors of the Japanese bombings were doing.” Dr. Strangelove shows the desire of military men to be Wolrd War II heros, but in the context of the “Dooms Day Machine,” could never be because it would kill them all and everyone else on the planet. With this Kubrick points out the absurdity in nuclear warfare against a formulated enemy. Communism became such a focus of paranoia because our society constructed it as a driving force attempting to crush our suburbia. Kubrick was obviously commenting on the paradigm set up and carried into the 1950s and 60s of America being a good place with the sole threat of communism by showing the American soldiers and government officials as rather blundering idiots, too concerned with the lipstick in their survival packs to realize their actions will kill them all.

On the surface, like in all war movies, the commander Slim Pickens would appear to be a symbol of patriotism and masculinity with his cowboy hat, and willingness to straddle a nuclear weapon. The rather obvious irony being that these men, supposedly fighting to save America against a brutal enemy, are really going to end the entire human race when they drop of a nuclear weapon. The way Kubrick makes viewers question the legitimacy of the soldiers’ roles is great. Often people view war movies as a proud triumph, accepting the United States as a sound just and brave nation. Dr Strangelove puts this into perspective, presenting us with a president too much of a wuss to take any really action and American soldiers who attack their own base. By doing this, he questions the reasons behind war and our judgment of ourselves as the “good” country. With the way Kubrick presents the film’s characters, it is really revolutionary at the time of what film could say about the status quo.

The only contemporary example I could think of as a satire of the Iraq War was Borat. It definitely points out Americans’ perceptions of minorities in a shocking way. The scene that really comes to mind is when Borat is in the arena getting the audience riled up by saying things such as, “I hope President Bush drinks the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq!,” only to be met by whooping applause.