The Countdown Satire Analysis

This movie follows the fictional Dr. Strangelove and the US president as they struggle to avoid all out nuclear war with the Soviet Union, along with also avoiding the dreaded Soviet Doomsday Device. The countdown begins when General Ripper, who is afraid that adding florid to US water supplies is a soviet plot, calls for a all out nuclear strike on the soviet union and he is the only man who can recall it. The main argument made in this film is how the largely absurd Red Scare after World War 2 looks when viewed in a comedic way. Not only does this film highlight the Red Scare but other “hot topics” of the time, including: Fluoridation of US waters, US use of Nazi Scientists and movies sexualization of the time. Soon after General Ripper

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