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Dr Strangelove at 60
- geraldhh 3y ago[flagged]
- throw0101d 3y ago"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" — #64, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movie_Quotes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movie_...
- dano 3y agoMy favorite bit of irony.
- mynameisash 3y agoMy teenage kids regularly quote that line. Along with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Strangelove is one of their (and my) favorite old movies. For anyone that hasn't seen it, it really is a fantastic dark comedy.
- alexb_ 3y agoI think about the Soviets gaining control of our "precious bodily fluids" all the time. One of the best comedies ever made. I also remember hearing that Kurbrick very intentionally put in a ton of sexual metaphors throughout the entire movie - a lot of the scenes and lines (especially the opening one refueling the bomber) change when you view it from that perspective!
- jacquesm 3y agoAs well as the final scene.
- quickthrowman 3y agoDon’t forget character names. -President Merkin Muffley; a merkin is a pubic wig, and muff is a synonym for pubic hair. -General Buck Turgidson; Buck is a name for a male deer/horned animal, and turgid means ‘erect’. -Russian Ambassador Alexei de Sadeski; de Sadeski is referencing the Marquis de Sade.
- tharmas 3y agoIts one of the best movies of all time. That bomb ride is ICONIC!
- dang 3y agoSorry for the offtopicness but could you please email hn@ycombinator.com? I want to send you some repost invites!
- _yb2s 3y agoWas going to downvote for unhelpful snark until I realized who this was.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- linsomniac 3y ago"Based on the findings of the report, my conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious."
- cglace 3y ago"Mr. President, we must not allow... a mine shaft gap!"
- scotty79 3y agoCurrent discussions about military AI race against China remind me of this. Obviously the only valid response is to build the humanity murdering robots first. We must not allow the gap to form.
- 082349872349872 3y ago> One to embody power, the other to crave it. —DH aka DB See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_(film)
- arethuza 3y ago“That was a documentary.” - Daniel Ellsberg talking about Dr Strangelove: https://slate.com/culture/2017/12/the-doomsday-machine-daniel-ellsbergs-sobering-new-memoir-about-life-as-a-nuclear-war-planner.html https://slate.com/culture/2017/12/the-doomsday-machine-danie...
- razakel 3y agoKubrick was even investigated by the FBI because he got the interior of the then-classified B-52 bomber almost exactly correct.
- thinkingtoilet 3y agoHas there been an explanation for that? Did he have inside intel or did he get a little lucky?
- razakel 3y agoIt was just guesswork based on other aircraft.
- datadrivenangel 3y agoSlim Pickens does the right thing when he rides the bomb into hell. A classic film.
- sillywalk 3y agoAnd Homer Simpson taking out those Beatniks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K10pdj5YOy0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K10pdj5YOy0
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- therealfiona 3y ago"He'll see everything! He'll see the big board!"
- shrimp_emoji 3y ago"That is precisely the idear, General. That is precisely the idear."
- hyggetrold 3y ago“Sir, I think it’s hardly fair to condemn an entire program just because of a single slip-up!”
- daverol 3y agoDr Strangelove himself seems to be the perfect prototype for a modern tech entrepreneur: The type of mad techno bro who relishes the opportunity to apply his hair-brained schemes to fix real world problems. The worse things get the more he bubbles with excitement and throws out outlandish solutions.
- neuromanser 3y ago*hare-brained. Nice eggcorn! :) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eggcorn https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eggcorn
- MilStdJunkie 3y agoProbably the greatest satire put to film. It's hard not to rank this among Kubrick's best, although, honestly, that's due in part to the intense subject. Great retrospective in the OP - I've always loved that transformation in production, where Stanley realized that the thriller could only ever be filmed as perfect pitch-black comedy. Maybe a little telling on Kubrick's character, but what a fantastic decision. Every war creates in its climax the perfect weapon for the fighting of that war just past. In World War II, the denouement of the western colonialist systems, exploitation was so perfected that victory became genocide. So, with brutal logic, the war created the perfect weapon for eliminating whole peoples, along with their land, their water, their pets[1], etc. In the 1960s, America had this perfected weapon of WW2, but had not experienced directly the circumstances of total war that had brought it about, and not gained the painful wisdom accumulated[2]. Strangelove is in part a story of medieval generals jousting with dynamite strapped to the tips of their lances. And, as it turns out, that's pretty funny. [1] Hat tip to Oliver Reed's shambling Vulcan in Gilliam's Munchausen here. [2] And had gained a cancerous homunculus in the form of Strangelove himself, the last vestige of colonialism's final form.
- shrimp_emoji 3y ago"A guy could have a good time in ~~Dallas~~Vegas with all that stuff." (Had to be ADR'd to "Vegas" since the Kennedy assassination was too recent to stick with Kong's preferred "Dallas".)
- sidcool 3y agoOne of the best movies ever made. It was my first Kubrick movie. And then I was hooked. And this is where I became George Scott fan.
- xamuel 3y agoSome observations I've made about the film and haven't seen anyone else make: * "Strangelove" = "Strangle" + "Glove" * In many war room scenes, if you squint, the table looks like a mushroom cloud. The circular light above the table is the "halo" of the mushroom cloud. * When Mandrake first learns what General Ripper is up to, at one point the camera angle makes it look like Mandrake is a tiny doll of a man standing on General Ripper's desk. * The film features many nested levels of self-destruct systems interfering with each other. The Doomsday Device, the decision to help the USSR shoot down the bombers, even the bomber's own self-destruct system (which ironically blows itself up, not the plane, and in the process destroys the decoder system so the crew can't receive the recall code). For example, if the president hadn't helped the USSR attack the bombers, then said decoder wouldn't have been destroyed, and Armageddon would've been avoided. * The closing scenes feature real atomic blast footage, some with ships nearby. Some analysts incorrectly think this is a continuity error, as the Doomsday Device was landlocked. But in fact it's perfectly consistent with the last lines of dialog: even post-Doomsday Device, mankind cannot even get along to escape into the mineshafts peacefully, instead entering a full-scale nuclear conflict despite the futility of it all.
- powera 3y agoThe passcode "O P E" isn't "Peace On Earth", it is the first letters of the word "Open".
- mynameisash 3y agoThis "decoder system" is called a CRM-114 discriminator, a name which is also used as a spam-detection program[0,1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRM114_(program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRM114_(program) [1] https://crm114.sourceforge.net/ https://crm114.sourceforge.net/
- el_snark 3y agoThe final scene of Dr. Strangelove is a powerful metaphor for the current state of Twitter
- blululu 3y agoSomething I learned recently is that the film was not exactly singular: Failsafe - a different movie about a Nuclear Incident was being developed at the same time. Stanley Kubrick and Columbia sued them reached a settlement to delay the release of the more serious movie starting Henry Fonda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_Safe_(1964_film)#Lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_Safe_(1964_film)#Lawsuit
- noefingway 3y agoFor the "Dr Strangelove" fans that haven't seen "Failsafe" I recommend watching it and "Seven Days in May". IMHO Larry Hagman provides a compelling performance as Henry Fonda's translator trying to get the translation and nuances of emotion from the Soviet premier. All three were released in 1964 and provide different takes on the anxieties of the era. We used to joke a lot about having to hide under our desks (lived in the DC suburbs) during the air raid drills, lot of good that would do when the nukes dropped!
- euroderf 3y agoBoth recommendations seconded. FWIW, Failsafe is a great example of film minimalism.
- getwiththeprog 3y agoIf searching, it is "Fail Safe 1964", which also adds another layer of meaning.
- nickdothutton 3y ago3 of my favourite films of the decade.
- ahartmetz 3y agoI have also watched all three and would recommend all of them :)
- sillywalk 3y ago
- stared 3y agoTo me, "Don't Look Up" is a sequel to "Dr Strangelove" (obviously, not nearly as iconic, but still). The core parts are the same: the looming existential danger of the time and the irresponsibility of the most influential people, making things from bad to worse.
- uoaei 3y agoDon't Look Up is excellent and I believe only would have been improved if it was directed by the Safdie brothers.
- TremendousJudge 3y agoBig difference is that the character of the President is very competent and does everything right as the situtation develops. He is the only character with common sense, alongside the British officer. The failures of the system are beyond his control. The text implies that the elected officials act in the people's interests, and that they are actually good at their jobs -- but that it isn't enough to go against the military. Don't Look Up presents an even bleaker perspective IMO.
- leotravis10 3y agoThe Criterion Collection's packaging for the film is very unique I must say: https://www.criterion.com/films/28822-dr-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb https://www.criterion.com/films/28822-dr-strangelove-or-how-... https://criterion-production.s3.amazonaws.com/carousel-files/52784207157d6214534c5a584d721bb3.jpeg https://criterion-production.s3.amazonaws.com/carousel-files...
- rdtsc 3y agoOne of the strange things is that the Soviets had eventually developed something similar as described in the movie. It was as automated as in the movie but the general idea is the same https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand also called Perimeter (Периметр). There is an interesting point in the movie that the idea was to always inform the opponent about it, so they don't even dare strike first. But the system was kept secret, at least officially, for many years. One of the designers explained that the other purpose of the system was to protect against hot-headed generals who, on short notice or from a faulty warning signal, may panic and launch an attack. In that case it wasn't necessary to advertise the system. My idea is that the opponent (US) also knew about it from intelligence channels, and the Soviet knew that US knew, and that was enough. There was no point in officially making it public.
- AniseAbyss 3y agoThe US invested in an airborne command center so that even in the event of a catastrophic sneak attack someone would still be alive to order a retaliation strike.
- throw0101d 3y ago* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-4 A program for a replacement is in-progress: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivable_Airborne_Operations_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivable_Airborne_Operations... Russia also has an airborne command plane: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-80 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-80
- mongol 3y agoIs Dr Strangelove a caricature of Kissinger? I heard that in an Adam Curtis documentary.
- chuckadams 3y agoHe’s based mostly on Edward Teller, progenitor of the H-bomb, with a good dollop of Werner Von Braun thrown in for flavor.
- pi-e-sigma 3y agoEdward Teller wasn't even a German and he never worked for the Nazis. Unlike Werner von Braun.
- ahartmetz 3y agoIt is possible to combine the substance of one character with the flavor of another. Edward Teller was a kind of "rationally mad" guy, and political, while von Braun was more of an ethically flexible engineer ("just let me build rockets") and, of course, German.
- pi-e-sigma 3y agoEdward Teller wasn't 'rationally mad', it was von Neumann who was very eager to drop atomic bombs on the Soviet Union. Besides picturing Edward Teller who actually came from a Jewish family and fled Germany when the Nazis came to power as a devout Nazi is not funny and doesn't even make any sense.
- iggldiggl 3y ago> just let me build rockets Once ze rockets are up, who cares where zey come down… https://tomlehrersongs.com/wernher-von-braun/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/wernher-von-braun/
- sillywalk 3y agoHe was at least partly based on Herman Kahn[0], author of the book "On Thermonuclear War" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kahn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kahn
- neuromanser 3y agoI'm sure glad it's still under copyright: how else would we motivate Stanley Kubrick to make more movies?
- willis936 3y agoElectro shock therapy might give him some motivation.
- cf100clunk 3y agoCelebrated in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/29/dr-strangelove-stanley-kubrick-anniversary https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/29/dr-strangelove-...
- GMoromisato 3y agoBy coincidence, I just watched this again last week and it still holds up. I think it's interesting that Mutually Assured Destruction--which Kubrick thought "insane"--turned out to be a stable state in a game-theory sense. In fact, when Reagan tried to move away from MAD by building anti-missile defense, most analysts thought it would be MORE dangerous: If the US were to make Russian missiles "impotent and obsolete" then the Soviets would be tempted to use them or lose them. Good thing it failed. And if anti-nuclear activists had succeeded in ridding the world of nuclear weapons, we'd probably be sending US Marines to Ukraine, sparking another world war. Maybe it's only the continuation of MAD that kept the world safe. That's surely the kind of absurd irony that Kubrick would have approved of.
- darkteflon 3y agoThis is such a great comment. It did, however, remind me of Zhou Enlai’s quip when asked about the impact of the French Revolution: “Too early to say.”
- j-bos 3y agoSeems he wasn't looking to far back/ahead: https://web.archive.org/web/20231114164905/https://www.scmp.com/article/970657/not-letting-facts-ruin-good-story https://web.archive.org/web/20231114164905/https://www.scmp....
- darkteflon 3y agoI think most people consider it apocryphal - as is so often the way with these things. Its rhetorical force certainly doesn’t depend on intimate historical knowledge of competing political ideologies.
- rurp 3y agoI could not disagree more, and there are a great many experts and practitioners in this space that would agree with me. The history of the cold war is terrifying. MAD is incredibly flawed, but it stuck around because nobody could come up with a better option that could actually get adopted. A system that relies on near-perfect alert systems and requires leaders to always make calm rational decisions about the fate of the world with limited information and only minutes to decide is not a stable system. SDI wasn't an isolated case, there were a number of times when either the US or Soviets grew concerned about the other sides progress and seriously considered a preemptive nuclear strike. There will be more of these debates in the future and it only takes one misstep to blow up the world. If nukes had somehow been eliminated before 2022 Putin would almost certainly have not invaded Ukraine. NATO's conventional forces absolutely dwarf Russia's, but the threat of nuclear escalation has kept western support much more limited than it might otherwise have been. Putin is a lot of things, but he's not suicidal about risk. We're currently heading towards a world even less stable than the cold war. Back then there were only two major players. China is currently ramping up their nuclear forces, nuclear cooperation is breaking down with Russia, and our relations are becoming increasingly antagonistic with both countries. On top of that we have rogue actors like North Korea and possibly Iran in the near future. For folks interested in a this topic I highly recommend the Arms Control Wonk podcast. For anyone who needs more existential dread in their life, the book Command and Control by Schlosser has a great history of nuclear weapons and strategy.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Jeema101 3y agoOne of my favorite movie monologues of all time is the speech Slim Pickens' character gives to the crew when he realizes that their mission isn't an exercise. It's so delightfully absurd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ynY5NvYsZY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ynY5NvYsZY
- barrkel 3y agoDoes anyone else find Kubrick's movies weirdly bloodless? They are technically excellent but they leave me completely unmoved, they have zero purchase on my emotions. Dr Strangelove not an exception. The effect is a bit like Preacher and people without a soul. The movie shows me images and I see them, but almost like abstract art.
- hulitu 3y ago> Kubrick's movies weirdly bloodless Full metal jacket
- barrkel 3y agoI don't mean literally bloodless, but lacking in pathos and not encouraging much empathy. I like FMJ, but what I actually like is the first half in boot camp, and that is dominated by the sergeant's performance. Without R. Lee Ermey I think I'd be pretty indifferent to it. People talk about 2001: A Space Odyssey like it is best sci-fi movie ever made, but all I can think of is it has extremely good cinematography, great sets, excellent practical special effects and stylistically looks ahead of its time. It left me completely cold. I have zero enthusiasm to watch it other than as a video slideshow. I appreciate these things, but not on their own, not as a movie.
- natroniks 3y agoHave you ever seen A Clockwork Orange? That, imho, is overflowing with pathos. If you do not feel moved by Alex's actions - sympathy, empathy, revulsion, and more - then I'd be curious to know what films do elicit an emotional response from you?