Dr. Strangelove- Justin Kaplan
I think that the portrayal of the military in Dr. Strangelove’s was very unfair and biased. I believe that Kubrick intentionally satirized the intentions made by the military leaders at the time. He was trying to show the stupidity of military leaders with their "callous disregard for other human lives, and their own lust for power" (Malland 702). Turgidson was a perfect example of this when he showed how he could care less about the number of people that were killed. He also showed his selfishness when he later talked about the ration of women to men in the shelters. I think that this movie really gave the people and unfair and untrue look of what really goes on and behind the scenes of the war room. They mocked and made fun of many situations when in reality it was a very crucial and important time. I think that Kubrick used black comedy throughout this film to sort of enlighten people and not show how serious and scary "war" really is. I believe that this sub-genre of comedy was a new thing at the time and was really a risky thing to do. I don't believe that it was a huge hit when it came out in the 60's because this was such a new idea and many people didn't really agree with it. Now a days, people are much more accepting and are willing to view this movie in a more light-hearted way. In “Dr. Strangelove (1964): Nightmare Comedy and the Ideology of Liberal Consensus”, Charles Maland suggests that '"black humor is pitched at the breaking point where moral anguish explodes into a mixture of comedy and terror, where things are so bad you might as well laugh, and I believe this totally explains the way it is used in this movie. Kubrick also uses technology in the film to show how important it is in defending the country. Maland emphasizes that Kubrick shows a fascination for machines and “develops his attitude toward technology in Dr. Strangelove by making use of both machines of destruction and machines of communication” (pp. 711). All of this shows that our country relies largely on communication and this is an extremely important part of the technology used in the war. All in all I felt that this was a pretty good film but I just think that its use of black comedy was way ahead of its time period and the people did not get a good feel of what the movie was really trying to do. This is why I think that it is now viewed as one of the best U.S. films of the 60's.