Satire and Black Humor in Dr. Strangelove

1256 Words3 Pages

Even though Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb screened in the midst of the sobering Cold War, critics were keen on praising the film for its mastery of humor applied to such a sensitive matter. The film is exceedingly loaded with metaphors, innuendos, and allusions that nothing can be left undissected or taken for face value; the resulting effect is understood to be part of Kubrick’s multifarious theme. Kubrick has stated that what began as a “the basis for a serious film about accidental war ” eventually birthed an absurd and farcical classic comedy. The director fuses together irony, satire, and black humor to create a waggish piece but most of all the situation of the times and its gravity is the essence of what the audience finds so hilarious . Using caricatures rather than characters, exaggerated script, and sexual undertones, Kubrick manifests to the audience their own predicament and just how ridiculous it is to even consider brinksmanship as a means to preserve the American lifestyle.

The whole premise of the film is based on insubordination committed by General Jack D. Ripper. Named after the infamous serial killer of prostitutes, General Ripper claims his “loss of essence” is because of the Communist’s use of water fluoridation, a completely off-base theory by the general to explain his impotency , and uses his military status to start a cataclysmic nuclear war with Russia. This in itself is comical because that inane and inherent need to dominate and prove both physical and sexual prowess seems to exist solely in males and in Kubrick’s eyes serves as an origin for this unwarranted war between two overly capable countries. The cigar, machinegun, and pistol that Ge...

... middle of paper ...

....filmsite.org/drst.html>.

Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Print.

Lindley, Dan. "Lindley: Study Guide to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove." University of Notre Dame. 8 Sept. 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .

Macklin, Tony. "Sex and Dr. Strangelove : Film Review : By Tony Macklin at Tonymacklin.net." Tony Macklin - Film, Fiction, and More. Film Comment, 1 June 1965. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .

Nelson, Thomas Allen. Kubrick, inside a Film Artist's Maze. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000. Print.

"Satire at Its Funniest - Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Epinions.com." Reviews from Epinions. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .

Show More
Related

  • Dr. Strangelove Satire

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 black comedy satire film about nuclear war between the USSR and the USA. It has received many awards including #26 on the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies list and a 99% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film begins with General Jack D. Ripper putting his base on high alert and ordering his bomber wing to preemptively drop nuclear bombs onto the Soviet Union. His second in command, Mandrake, tries to stop him after finding out the Pentagon ordered nothing and finds out that Ripper is insane in thinking the Soviets are trying to poison the American water supply. The Pentagon finds out and tries to stop it but they could not find the three digit code in time to stop the planes. General Turgidson recommends

    Read More

  • Do the Right Thing Scene Analysis

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print

    Read More

  • The Saddest Music in the World: A Surreal Melodrama

    2152 Words  | 5 Pages

    Canadian filmmaker and cinephile, Guy Maddin once said, “I do feel a bit like Dracula in Winnipeg. I’m safe, but can travel abroad and suck up all sorts of ideas from other filmmakers… Then I can come back here and hoard these tropes and cinematic devices.” Here, Maddin addresses his filmmaking saying that he takes aspects from different film styles and appropriates them into his own work. In The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Maddin uses a combination of French Surrealist filmmaking and classical American Hollywood cinema, specifically melodrama, to create his own style. In an article by William Beard, Steven Shaviro talks about Maddin’s filmmaking, and he links Surrealism and melodrama together saying, “Maddin’s films are driven by a tension between romantic excess [melodrama] on the one hand and absurdist humour [Surrealism] on the other.” In regards to The Saddest Music in the World, the relationship between Surrealism and melodrama is not one of tension, as Shaviro suggests, but one of cooperation. This paper will analyze two films by filmmakers Maddin was familiar with —Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali on the Surrealist side, and All That Heaven Allows (1955) by Douglas Sirk on the melodrama side—to showcase the important elements of each, concluding with an analysis of The Saddest Music in the World in conjunction with both film styles. Ultimately, it will be shown how Guy Maddin combines French Surrealist cinema and Hollywood melodrama in The Saddest Music in the World, to create his own unique film style.

    Read More

  • Dr Strangelove: Movie Analysis: Dr. Strangelove

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    6. "Deterrence is the art of producing, in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack." -Dr. Strangelove. Deterrence in the film was the fear of the consequences of the nuclear attacks. It's significant because it encompasses idea of the Cold War.

    Read More

  • The Wolf of Wall Street a Film by Martin Scorsese

    1251 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connelly, Marie. "The films of Martin Scorsese: A critical study." Diss. Case Western Reserve University, 1991. Web. 07 Apr 2014.

    Read More

  • Fight the Power

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print.

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock Shower Scene Analysis

    1819 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock has at times been criticised for rampant sexism, at others heralded as a master of subversive cinema. According

    Read More

  • The Countdown Satire Analysis

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main argument made in this movie is that of the dangerous of the Cold War stand off we were apart of. At the time, around 1945, it was believed it would take as little as 10 large nuclear devices to destroy life on earth,1 a small fraction of the arsenal that the countries possessed. This was most clearly expressed in the fictional “Doomsday Device” metaphor. Another large piece of satire within the movie was the character background of Dr. Strangelove himself. At the time period the movie was set in it was widely believed that the US Government was using past Nazi Scientists to farther their own research in the Cold War Stand off. Dr. Strangelove can be seen as a based Nazi Scientist by his heavy German accent and also a “accidental” shout of “Hail Hitler”. Finally one of the most satired, but least obvious perhaps, was the hierarchy secret style of leadership with in the US military at the height of the Cold War, due to the renewal of The Red Scare2. The first example of this is that General Ripper was able to order a nuclear strike with no questions asked but also he is the only one who could recall the attack, a power that not even the president had. The second, less obvious, example of this is when the commander of the Army division arrested the Executive Officer he didn 't know why he needed to do so or anything about the impending nuclear strike. The movie hinted at the dangerous of this leadership style as it caused people to follow directions blindly, even when those directions were wrong. I don 't believe that this is the best film representation of the feeling of Americans during the critical time period in a historical context. Although it does show many hot topic issues that occurred during that time you may not pick up on them unless knowing before hand that it was a popular issue of the

    Read More

  • Scene Analysis of "The Green Mile"

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • The Cold War Film Analysis

    3371 Words  | 7 Pages

    Often times, the vast entirety of the world populous enjoy movies for their entertainment or insight value, as well as the variety of topics of which they offer. The Cold War, a popular theme among many films, perpetuated from 1945, following World War II, until 1991. As the historical tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia, USSR, the two nations came to stand off, only to be interceded by the all too unfortunate and plausible concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. The era raises the question and sense of awareness for each country of the other’s strength, striking fear into those who lived to see it unfold. The American society, in an effort to raise public awareness of the threat that lay at its door step, turns to the entertainment industry for assistance in their dilemma. Between 1982 and 1991, during the rise of the burgeoning motion picture industry and the apex of the Cold War, several motion pictures make their debut where they depict Soviet Russia and its destructive and innovative potential. These films based within the time period, such as The Hunt for Red October, Red Dawn and War Games, are noteworthy examples of American propaganda during the later period of the Cold War and its distortion of what threats lie at the relative east in an effort to raise concern over the intercontinental standoff.

    Read More

  • Nurse Ratched By Randle P Mcmurphy

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Forman’s film explores an ethical battle between the two main characters; R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) and nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Throughout the film, director Forman uses aesthetic techniques, as well as sound and colour to help position

    Read More

  • Theme Of Isolation In The Graduate

    412 Words  | 1 Pages

    Isolation, or the disconnection from reality, can cause people to do horrible things out of desperation. In the 1967 classic The Graduate, the main character, Benjamin Braddock, feels like his life is empty and meaningless. In result, he fires up a scandalous affair with the married Mrs. Robinson in order to feel something. The cinematographer, Robert Surtees, uses camera zooms and the director, Mike Nichols, uses underwater scenes to portray Benjamin’s depression and discontent with his life.

    Read More

  • Violence, a theme in the Movie "The Shining"

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    this essay I am going to set to prove that Stanley Kubrick is trying to prove that violence can

    Read More

  • Movie Analysis: The Social Network

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    Barsam, R. M., Monahan, D., & Gocsik, K. M. (2012). Looking at movies: an introduction to film (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co..

    Read More

  • Violence in Cinema

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ion allows the film to exist unto itself with its totality defined by distinctive (independent) subjectivity. Like in many of his other movies, Kubrick litters Full Metal Jacket with symbolism and metaphor, but these directorial techniques need not be examined to enjoy or understand the plot of the movie. Although the split nature of the film expounds upon both the ability of the viewer to concentrate and be distracted by representations (logic vs. overriding emotion), it is also an exhibit for the dualist nature of man, i.e., the final marching chant. The use of a Disney song in any respect implies an association to innocence and good-will; applying it as a closing scene in a sequence that is dominated by a tirade of destruction is a more obvious symbolic gesture on Kubrick’s part. Can man be both malicious & peaceful? Or is man both? Through making both explicit distinctions and connections between mercy and vengeance in the human condition as evidenced in Full Metal Jacket as the preparation for (1st half) and execution of technique (2nd half) when existing in a war-state, Kubrick illustrates the disjunctive corollary (1st half & 2nd half) that war is organized chaos.

    Read More

More about Satire and Black Humor in Dr. Strangelove

Open Document