This film is now several decades old. Are the issues it addresses still relevant today? If Dr. Strangelove were to be remade for today’s audiences, would the references and messages be different?[1]
1. Vincent Lowery, “Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Teach the Film in the Classroom.” OAH Magazine of History16, no. 4 (2002): 32-36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163548.
I think the issues Dr. Strangelove are still very applicable today, especially given the rising tensions with North Korea. The film was a harsh reminder that human error can lead us down the path toward our own destruction, especially when it comes to nuclear weapons. The nuclear war depicted in the film was essentially the result of the paranoia and recklessness of one general. The general’s actions really reminded me of the fact that the use of nuclear weapons in the US is determined by only two people-the president and I believe the secretary of state. At the present one of these two individuals is incredibly unstable and is threatening to use military action against an unstable regime that I can’t imagine wouldn’t respond with nuclear force if attacked. As corny as it sounds the film really reminded me of how fragile a time we are living in especially because of rising nuclear tensions and how easy it is for leaders in charge to start a nuclear war. If this film were to be remade today I’m sure the country the US would be in an arms race with would be North Korea, as it currently posses the greatest nuclear threat to the US (or the media portrays it as). I also think it is very possible that the president would be portrayed as the mentally unstable person who gives the orders to initiate a nuclear strike. The messages the film portrays in the original version would hold up quite well in a remake, especially the use of sexual references to satirize the primal, aggressive nature of our president’s rhetoric towards war.