Dr.Strangelove: A Strange Look into War

War is Not a Game

The theme of "the game" appears in Stanley Kubrick's Dr.Strangelove in a few different places. These places include the likeness between the War Room table and a poker table, how Major T.J. "King" Kong rode the bomb as if it was a bull, and how Jack Ripper kept his machine gun in a golf bag. It is as if they were "playing a game of poker for the fate of the world (Stillman 8). This represents how America, as well as several other countries, act as though war is a sport. Somebody must win, somebody must lose; the guns are our tools, the table is where we come up with the plays, and the bomb represents a sport that we know will end in getting hurt no matter how long we are in control. Kubrick is trying to make his audience think and realize that war is not a game. There is not a real winner and a real loser when both sides experience casualties. The president seems to represent the coach while all of the generals and soldiers, and if a general (Ripper's call on using Plan "R", for instance) disobeys the coach, then there is more than just a game at stake. In fact, his call ended up in causing the destruction of the entire world.

The President and military officials sit around the table in the War Room.

Tune of Irony
The ending song to the movie, Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again", is accompanied by the visuals of mushroom clouds that are undoubtedly destroying all cities on the Earth. The song is upbeat and suggests a sense of hope and positivity for the listener. The irony is seeping from this audio and visual combination. The chorus goes "but I know we'll meet again some sunny day." This line being accompanied by cloudy explosions that represent death is supposed to give us the sense that there in fact is no hope with a world full of atomic bombs.

One of the mushroom cloud slides, that plays at the end of the movie along with the song "We'll Meet Again."

A Man's Game

The female presence in Dr.Strangelove, or lack there of, is a good example of how war is thought of as a man's "game", and how only half of the population actually has any say in what happens to our society. The only female in the movie, Ms Scott, represents devotion, passion, and sexuality. I believe Kubrick is showing his viewers how women are being pushed aside in important matters such as these. According to an article by Grant B. Stillman, Ms Scott also discreetly appears on the "centerfold in the Playboy magazine being admired by Major Kong in the cockpit" (Stillman 5), furthering the point that women are viewed as sexual items and are not useful during war.

Ms Scott rises from her tanning bed to relay important massages to General Turgidson.

Stillman, Grant B. "Two of the MADdest Scientists:where Strangelove Meets Dr. No; Or, Unexpected Roots for Kubrick's Cold War Classic." Film History 20 (2008): 487-500. Print.