Strange World of Dr. Strangelove

Humor

At first glance Dr. Strangelove is just an old-fashioned comedy but if you look closer there is a little more to it. I didn’t agree with the authors sense of humor. Richardson writes about the humor, “one feels that those responsible for the film have settled for rather worn gags and bits of political sniping that have become just too fashionable and easily accepted to have a place alongside the work's better moments” (Richardson 251). Although I didn’t agree with the author’s opinion, I do think there were some cheesy moments to the film.

Mise en Scene

From the very first scene the personality of each character is created through the lighting, their costumes and appearances. Lionel Mandrake is shown as a clean cut Captain that is in a very well lit area in which you can see all of his features. Then there is General Jack Ripper who is sitting in a dark room with a lit cigar, the lighting and cigar set the mood. This makes Ripper seem somewhat mysterious. These two characters let you see the good, which is Captain mandrake and the evil which is General Ripper.

This scene captures General Ripper smoking a cigar while talking to Mandrake. You judge, do you think General Ripper is evil?

A good use of props is when machine fire rips through Ripper's office, shattering his window, and knocking down his fluorescent lighting. Ripper runs to the window and shouts: "Two can play at that game, soldier!...That's nice shooting soldier!" Then, he takes his own machine gun from a golf bag in his closet, sweeps his desk clear with the gun barrel, and mounts the gun on his desk, asking Mandrake to help feed the ammunition belt of cartridges, taken from the golf bag, into the machine. This is a good use of props because it is unexpected for him to have a machine gun in golf bag. Also, in the background there is a poster that says 'Peace is our Profession' in the middle of a shoot out.

Irony

The War Room is another room that has this irony to it. The table was set to look like a poker table to seem like everyone in the war room was playing a game and holding their best cards close to their chest. In his article, "Two of the Maddest Scientist" Stillman says that Kubrick wanted a setup where, " the president, the generals and the Russian ambassador playing a game of poker for the fate of the world” (Stillman 494). Another ironic part is when President Merkin Muffley yelled, “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room” to Turgidson and Ambassador de Sadesky. The war room also contained the “Big Map,” this map was essentially a map focused around Russia and the United States. The rest of the countries on the map were small and considered insignificant. This showed that everyone else at the time was being overlooked and how much attention and tension was between the US and Russia at this time. In his article "Strangelove and the Silence," Richardson describes the lighting in the war room by saying, “the use of light and shadow in the 'War Room' so that it seems an endless subterranean world where footfalls echo ominously” (Richardson 252).

This shows the map in the 'war room' and how Russia and the US are magnified making the other countries look insignificant.

Dr. Strangelove

The character that really stood out to me was Dr. Strangelove himself. He had the hand of his own which happened to act like a Nazi. Kubrick one day suggested that Ed Sikov wear a black glove on one hand only. In his article, "Two of the Maddest Scientist" Stillaman says, once the glove was on, Sikov looked down at his hand later he said, “Hey, that’s a storm-trooper’s arm. So instead of leaving it there looking malignant I gave the arm a life of its own. That arm hated the rest of the body for having made a compromise” (Stillman 494). I find that this really adds some sort of comedy to a part of the movie where everyone has come to the conclusion that it will be the end of the world because the “doomsday machine” is about to go off. This lightens the mood so it is not so down and devastating since the world is about to end.

Here Dr. Strangelove's hand is a mind of it's own which happens to be a Nazi pose. The black glove gives him a sense of power.

Works Cited

Kubrick, Stanley, dir. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

1964. Columbia Pictures, 2009.

Stillman, Grant, “Two of the MaDdest Scientists.” Film History. 20 (2008): 487-500.

Richardson, Jack. "Strangelove and the Silence." The Hudson Riview. 17.2 (1964): 250-255.