Today in class we will be watching Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), a comedy about nuclear war. Please bring in the following questions to class. We will finish our discussion on 15.1. Be prepared to speak about the film on that day.
Study Questions:
1. The character names in Dr. Strangelove are notable for their absurdity: General Ripper, Major "King" Kong, General "Buck" Turgidson, Dr. Strangelove, and Col. "Bat" Guano. Obviously these names are funny, but what more do they signify? Explain at least two of these names in relation to the character's actions and the themes of the film.
2. "Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.” Paging Dr. Freud! Dr. Strangelove is a film obsessed with sex. Everything from the plane's phallic mid-air refueling to the survival kit contents, from Buck Turgidson's habitual gum chewing to Dr. Strangelove's repopulation plan has a sexual subtext or the sexual content is just plain text. What is the connection between sex and nuclear war in the film?
3. In All that Melts into Air, Marshall Berman writes, "To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world--and, at the same time, threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are" (15). How is nuclear war modern?
4. How might we describe the chain of command in Weberian or Kafkaesque terms? How does it compare to the description of organizations in Night and Fog?
5. Take on the perspective of Gandhi. Use Dr. Strangelove as a means to critique Western civilization.
