Dr.Strangelove - Katherine Lung
In the time when everyone was in fear of the possible nuclear war and nerves were running high, I can see how Dr.Strangelove might confuse the audience with its satirical comment on the government and military with its hard headed, bullet minded, but passionate and outrageous characters. It definitely wasn’t a precise portrayal of the government and military however think it was a conscious choice made by the director to do so in order to show the contrast between the human and incompetent qualities of human beings with machines and technologies that serves the purpose it was programmed for. The use of technologies sticks out in this film with constant scenes that just focused on the large mechanism that surrounded these central figures whether it was in the strategy room or cockpit of the air force plane. Ironically, all communicative devices always failed to serve their purpose except to lead all humankind to doomsday. Ie, when the R.A.F officer tried to contact President Mufflin though a public payphone, the destroyed radio on the plane that made it impossible to recall the order. Even if the use of these communicative devices were successful, it often had ridiculous conversation that just strayed the characters from their original purposes (like the conversation between the US President and the Russian Premier). Ultimately technologies can only carry on what they were programmed to, but how they are used, are up to those who are capable of logical thoughts, such as human beings.