Dr Strangelove

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Comedy is a valuable tool that can be used to discuss pressing issues with a light touch. When comedy is used in serious or sad issues, it is referred to as black comedy. Stanley Kubrick applies black comedy in his 1964 film. ‘Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ to satirize widespread fears about a US and Soviet Union nuclear conflict in the Cold War. The story revolves around the actions of an unhinged General in the United States Air force, who orders a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. The President of the United and States and other generals then scramble to prevent the nukes from striking their targets. However, the General is the only person who knows the code to recall the B-52 planes. Dr Strangelove, a former USSR scientist, informs the Presidents and his generals that the Soviet Union has a plan to destroy the whole world in case of any nuclear attack on the region (Smith 2007). The film addresses the widespread fear among many people at the time that the world would come to an end if the US and the Soviet Union were to be engaged in a nuclear conflict. One of the main points of focus in the film ‘Dr. Strangelove’ is its ethics with regard to General Ripper, President Muffley and Dr Strangelove.

General Ripper is the unhinged General who takes the B-52 planes captive as they hurtle towards their Soviet targets. He is the commander of the Burpelson Air Base which commands several deadly weapons such as hydrogen bombs, flown in B-52 bombers. General Ripper gives the orders to deploy the bombs to his Executive officer, Captain Mandrake. The captain later realizes the Pentagon never gave the order, rather General Ripper deployed the B-52 bombers on his own. When Captain Mandrake confronts the General, he realizes that General Ripper has gone insane, and he locks the captain in his office to stop him from alerting anyone. The B-52 bombers remain on course to the Soviet Union, and their radios can only receive communication from General Ripper. The General in ‘Dr. Strangelove’ shows how power can corrupt a mind (Smith 2007). He has no ethics and is very excited at the thought of the coming bloodbath. He does not care how many people will die in the nuclear attacks. He seals off the Air Base to prevent the entry of any other personnel who might foil his plan. General Ripper shines the light on how much power military officers wield, and whether they are ethical enough to make the right decision.

President Merkin Muffley is the United States president, left to deal with the aftermath of General Ripper’s actions. When the President and his staff learn about General Ripper’s command, they try to come up with a plan to stop the B-52 planes from reaching the Soviet targets. In the War Room, General Buck Turgidson briefs the president on the situation and tries to convince him to let the strikes go on. President Muffley refuses and instead calls in the Soviet Ambassador to speak with the Soviet Premier on how to stop the attacks. The President wants no part in a first-strike nuclear attack (Case 2014). He even offers to reveal the targets of the B-52 bombers so that the Soviet Union can protect itself. President Muffley is an ethical man, with no desire to start a nuclear war that would lead to the death of millions. He does everything he can to avoid a strike, and this shows the kind of ethics that every leader should possess. However, President Muffley’s judgment comes into question based on his choice of Generals such as General Buck Turgidson and General Ripper.

Dr Strangelove is a former Nazi German now serving as scientific advisor to the president on nuclear war matters. He wonders why the Soviets never informed the rest of the world about the doomsday machine to deter countries from launching nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union. The doctor advises the President to gather a group of a few hundred thousand people to live underground where the radiation from nuclear strikes will not reach. He proposes a 10:1 ratio of females to males who will reproduce and repopulate the earth after radiation levels go down. Dr Strangelove is an unethical character in the film. His proposal to repopulate the earth sees human beings as mere reproduction tools (Lindley 2001). Additionally, he does not care about the millions of deaths that would result from the Soviet doomsday weapon and speaks about the coming annihilation with glee. Dr Strangelove’s character calls to question the ethics of choosing a Nazi to advise the President of the United States. Nazis are known for their love for death and chaos; hence Dr Strangelove is the wrong advisor on matters of nuclear war.

To summarize, the film ‘Dr. Strangelove’ satirizes many events and fear surrounding the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union each wanted to prove its superiority over the other, and the Soviet Union created a doomsday mechanism that would assure destruction of the world in case it was attacked. Mutually-assured destruction was one of the ideas in the conflict, and the film presents a possible scenario in case of a nuclear conflict between the two countries. The characters give deeper insight into the ethics of the film. General Ripper and Dr Strangelove are both trigger-happy characters who care little about the death of millions, while President Muffley is the only ethical person who tries to avert the destruction of the world.

References

Case, G. (2014). Calling Dr. Strangelove: The Anatomy and Influence of the Kubrick Masterpiece. McFarland.

Lindley, D. (2001). What I Learned Since I Stopped Worrying and Studied the Movie: A Teaching Guide to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. PS: Political Science & Politics, 34(3), 663-667.

Smith, P. D. (2007). Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon. St. Martin’s Press.