"Doctor Strangelove"

Post #167,051 by Arkadiy 8/1/04 10:31:10 PM Reply	"Doctor Strangelove" Well, I finally got to see this masterpiece. The whole movie left a sucking void in my soul, like a promising musical piece that did not reach a finishing chord. The opening scene, with two planes "mating" in the air, shot to a lirical music, is perfect. The crasy base commander, the Air Force chief, cowboy first pilot - very good. The smile on Dr. Strangelove - oh, it sets my teeth on edge. And then we get Nazy references - may be very appropriate in 1952, but quite useless now. The Russian Ambassador in funny hat - yes, there is such a thing as too much parody. Stupid "doomsday device". But my greatest beef with the movie is the ending. You know, if the nuclear war starts in the end, I don't care to know what little pathetic games the presidents played right before the mushrooms started. The whole story becomes meaningless, a half-page preface to the Revelation. This could have been a nice movie about how we almost destroyed the world. As a movie about the world actually ending, it is complete noncense. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,054 by a6l6e6x 8/1/04 10:41:04 PM Reply	That was not "mating" it was "suckling". And in those dark days of the Cold War, this was a dark comedy. The correct response is to laugh! :) It's one of few DVDs that I own. Alex "If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said." -- Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman
Post #167,060 by deSitter 8/1/04 10:59:57 PM Reply	Re: "Doctor Strangelove" You got the right point tovarich. The point of the movie is - because of sexual frustration, the world will be blown (haha) to hell. Playboy in the B52. "Turgidson". "Muffley". "Tschosen for sere STIMULATING sekkshual charachtaRISStics!" King Kong riding a Death Dong. It's satire - dark dark satire, but nevertheless satire. The original ending included a huge pie fight in the War Room. Kubrick cut this out. See the exactly contemporaneous movie "Fail Safe" for the Real Deal. It's a better movie. -drl
Post #167,063 by Another Scott 8/1/04 11:02:19 PM Reply	"Fail Safe" was a good book too.
Post #167,064 by ChrisR 8/1/04 11:02:49 PM Reply	Precious bodily fluids FWIW, Dr. Strangelove is my all time fav movie. Kubrick was not out to make a happy ending, unless you count 10 women for every man to be a happy ending. One thing I've been thinking lately is that America has had a paranoia for some time now. During the cold war, we were constantly under the threat of nuclear annhilation. Currently we are in the throes of paranoia of terrorism. I've wondered if such threats is what binds us as a nation, making us driven. Someday they'll make a dark comedy about our insecurities against the current enemy that will become a classic for another age. May be a while though.
Post #167,121 by Arkadiy 8/2/04 10:47:34 AM Reply	It's not paranoia if they _are_ out to get you. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,140 by FuManChu 8/2/04 1:15:59 PM Reply	What do you call it... ...when they're only out to get you because of the ways in which you act out your paranoia?
Post #167,143 by Steve Lowe 8/2/04 1:25:13 PM Reply	an Excedrin headache? -- Steve
Post #167,144 by boxley 8/2/04 1:27:32 PM Reply	dont bother me when the voices are saying locknload "delayed incessantly by people whose prevalent qualification was an excess of free-time" Philip Atkinson questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #167,166 by Arkadiy 8/2/04 3:22:29 PM Reply	Chicken and egg problem -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,189 by Ashton 8/2/04 6:08:10 PM Reply	{cackle} ... all fearfulness is circular
Post #167,153 by tuberculosis 8/2/04 1:59:28 PM Reply	You weren't listening to the song at the end of the movie when the bombs are going off. Lyrics: We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when But I'm sure we'll meet again some sunny day Keep smiling through, just the way you used to do Till the blue skies chase the dark clouds far away Now, won't you please say "Hello" to the folks that I know Tell 'em it won't be long 'cause they'd be happy to know that when you saw me go I was singing this song We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when But I'm sure we'll meet again some sunny day -------------------------- Which is pretty much a comment on the tremendous futility of it all. We learn nothing from our wars. That was lovely cheese. --Wallace, The Wrong Trousers
Post #167,167 by Arkadiy 8/2/04 3:28:21 PM Reply	I did listen to the song Did nothing for me, sorry to say. According to the movie's premise, the Earth will be radioactive for a few hundred yars. There will not be any "again". Or, rather, the species that will meet again will not be "we". In any case, that's not even the main problem. Nuclear mushrooms look very nice on screen, and the slow motion of their growth matches well with the song's lixurious rithm. Now picture the footage from Hiroshima set to the same music. Flesh falling off bones, dead burned child bodies in heaps. Does the music still fit? Words like "crass" and "insensitive" don't even begin to describe my feelings. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,172 by ben_tilly 8/2/04 3:59:57 PM Reply	How about, "Intentionally bitterly sarcastic"? To deny the indirect purchaser, who in this case is the ultimate purchaser, the right to seek relief from unlawful conduct, would essentially remove the word consumer from the Consumer Protection Act - [link\|http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1246&Page=1&pagePos=20\|Nebraska Supreme Court]
Post #167,180 by Arkadiy 8/2/04 5:00:11 PM Reply	Sarcasm can be applied to something bearable. I just cannot be sarcastic about megadeath. Holocoast, Rwanda, Gulag, Hiroshima... Deadly serious. I see where the authors want me to be, but I can't go there. Just my personal problems, I guess. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,181 by deSitter 8/2/04 5:08:56 PM Reply	then you will love "Fail Safe" I also recommend: "On the Beach" - still a powerful film all these years later. "Testament", 1980 or so, when Reagan began his nuke sabre rattling. Could be the best post-nukewar movie ever. NOTE - "Fail Safe" was remade with TV stars - DON'T RUIN THE EXPERIENCE WITH THIS TURKEY! The film is by Sidney Lumet and stars Henry Fonda as the President. The remake is horrible and pointless. "The Bedford Incident" is a good nuke-showdown-at-sea movie. There was another starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington, forgot the name. Of all these, "Testament" is the most chilling, "Fail Safe" the most suspenseful, "On the Beach" the saddest and most illustrative of the pointlessness of it all. -drl
Post #167,193 by Ashton 8/2/04 6:41:21 PM Reply	Then you'll utterly fail to get Tom Lehrer + much else Perhaps you don't grok (or agree with?) the difficulty of expressing extreme-loathing for a particular [idea, process, activity] when .. it's already in practice, usually undiscussed.. and acceptable to many - or is just Not Thought About much [?] It's more difficult to parody the Absurd, when there are many people already doing that - a contributing reason why there is so little Good 'humour' to be seen in current Corp Meeja in the US, IMO. First, it's hard to conceive an effective lampoon, parody re what we are already inured to; second - the 100% ad-oriented don't-offend-Anyone filter of bizness-think: Guarantees the broadcast of only the most innocuous pabulum and a near-0 chance of effectively excoriating the Unconscionable (it has become The Norm). Fail Safe, Strangelove - in their time - portrayed Starkly: the febrile mindset behind MAD [STILL Our Operative Nuke-plan in '04] as no previous films had even dared attempt: The one via humour + the irreplaceable Peter Sellers; the Fonda one by perfectly logical prose and a realistic scenario as might have occurred Any Day, then. Both took more than creativity - took Guts. No academic treatise assessing nuke risks to all the planet could have held a candle to the effectiveness of this pair of films, in portraying "The Reality". (Not that it changed anything in the group-think that creates such suicidal weapons = STILL) Today -- it is only less-likely that ICBMs will fly - it is Equally Possible, such as we Are and Remain: ostriches ever seeking new sand to hide head in, from unpleasant nutzo stuff we allow to persist. These two films Deserve 'this much ink' IMhO. Especially! given - the obv intention of This Admin to mix-in the new nukes on order as -merely- 'Conventional Munitions\ufffd' for our next scheduled series --> small Warz-for-Democracy cha cha cha What could be more contemporaneous than: these two films? Ashton
Post #167,303 by Arkadiy 8/3/04 3:27:02 PM Reply	Clarification I actually enjoyed the bit where Air Force chief held forth a discourse on 10 million deaths, and the Good Doctor's suggestions of bomb shelter for saving American Race (what a misnomer). I do get sarcasm. I just think that the ending was horribly out of tune (out of taste) with the rest of the movie. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,317 by inthane-chan 8/3/04 4:32:27 PM Reply	Interesting bit of trivia. Slim Pickens was under the impression that the film he was filming was a SERIOUS film, not a comedy. This makes his character (T.J. "King" Kong) even more bizzare. WANTED: Precognitive Telepath for adventuring Partnership. You know where to apply.
Post #167,359 by Ashton 8/3/04 6:48:39 PM Reply	Learn something new.. No.? Shit.? Well That instantly evokes - - "I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And, for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'." -- Bob Newhart via Rick Moen
Post #167,206 by rcareaga 8/2/04 9:20:53 PM Reply	And how 'bout that Jonathan Swift guy? I mean, like, "A Modest Proposal"—putting up helpless little Irish babies for retail sale as comestibles?—eeeeuuww! Some people may think that cannibalism is funny, but I don't. There are things you just don't joke about. FWIW, I regard Strangelove as one of the greats. I suspect that your own appreciation was hampered both by the cultural once-remove and, much more, by the forty years of dense history separating your viewing it for the first time in 2004 from the audiences at its original release. cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Post #167,301 by Arkadiy 8/3/04 3:15:39 PM Reply	Would you be as enthusiastic if "the proposal" was actually implemented, or seriously considered? -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,361 by Ashton 8/3/04 6:54:38 PM Reply	Umm imagining from that direction.. Taking an allegory for a literal-What-If? has another name - such things are done regularly from a 'Fundamentalist' mindset. Joshua done commanded the Sun not to move.. Oh Yes, I. Read. That. cha cha cha Surely.. You! jest -?-
Post #167,405 by Arkadiy 8/3/04 10:50:19 PM Reply	My problem exactly Except the other way around. When allegory is taken literally, it's fundamentalism. When litearl (impending, in my case, or past, as in pwisal's nice animation) horror is taken allegorically - that's crassness. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"
Post #167,416 by Ashton 8/4/04 1:09:00 AM Reply	Hmmm.. OK, I see your point. Yes, there's a danger within the tiny-brained folk [think Columbine?], a tendency to extrapolate Murica's fav media / Nintendo Ha-Ha violence into some New principle needing Fulfillment. I know of only one remedy to that; one cannot make words (pix) 'safe' for people; one only can attempt to breed sane people who are inherently 'safe' from easy manipulation by abstract symbols. (We don't do that very well; clearly others do better.) Map/territory problem? Creeping dumbth can only worsen the situation, I'd guess.
Post #167,392 by boxley 8/3/04 9:46:11 PM Reply	you have a fundie in the white house a nation who devours the after days series about xians and the last days. You have ashcroft in the justice department worrying that adults might see sex without benefits of marriage on video. It wouldnt take much to crank it up. One rogue nuke on the west coast, buttons pressed and some gleaming logic from silos behind the Urals do a detect from logic built in 1962 and launch. thanx, bill "delayed incessantly by people whose prevalent qualification was an excess of free-time" Philip Atkinson questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #167,417 by Ashton 8/4/04 1:12:23 AM Reply	Prec\ufffdsamente, amigo: that is exactly the connection and damn good Boxlish to boot :-) Brevity Award: 3 Repo adrenal glands and a piece of tail.
Post #167,230 by pwhysall 8/3/04 2:44:42 AM Reply	Oh dear. You'll hate [link\|http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/scrooger/images/lollercaust.gif\|this], then. (SFW, if you don't mind your boss thinking you're a weirdo) Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]
Post #167,232 by altmann 8/3/04 4:14:11 AM Reply	LOL! -- Chris Altmann
Post #167,302 by Arkadiy 8/3/04 3:17:52 PM Reply	I was going to say "fuck you". Then again, nobody pretends it's serious art. Just wierd amusement of the sick. -- "...was poorly, lugubrious and intoxicated." -- Patrick O'Brian, "Master and Commander"

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