Strangelove Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Dr Strangelove is one of Stanley Kubrick’s many masterpieces, one of the greatest films about the Cold War and one of the greatest comedies ever made. Isolating particular standout moments is near impossible, although President Muffley’s awkward phone conversation with his unseen Russian counterpart never fails to amuse. The early use of ironic music is also a delight, with a lush orchestral version of ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ playing over the opening titles depicting the sexualised imagery of a plane refuelling and Vera Lynn’s World War II hit ‘We’ll Meet Again’ playing over the film’s final images. Dr Strangelove was adapted from a serious novel titled Fail-Safe, which was more faithfully translated onto the screen by Sidney Lumet, also in 1964. While Lumet’s Fail-Safe is an excellent film, making Dr Strangelove as a comedy was a stroke of genius for Kubrick, who realised that the themes would carry even more weight if the film was funny. Major Kong riding a nuclear bomb like a rodeo horse is still one of the most hilarious and chilling images ever committed to film.Then there is Peter Sellers, who plays Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, the American president Merkin Muffley and the sinister German scientist Dr. Strangelove. Sellers, who had also appeared in Kubrick’s previous filmLolita (1962), is phenomenal in all three parts making Dr Strangelove possibly the only Kubrick film that arguably feels like it belongs more to its leading actor rather than its uncompromising auteur director. With the possible exception of Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979), Dr Strangelove is Sellers greatest performance(s). He’s delightfully proper as Mandrake, endearingly wet as Muffley and completely deranged as Strangelove. The final Strangelove scene, which is largely improvised, is so ridiculous, so over-the-top and so outrageous that if you look closely you can see actor Peter Bull, who plays Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky, desperately trying not to laugh in the background.

Paper 2- A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces starts off with its main character, Ignatius J Reilly, awaiting his mother outside of a department store, studying the crowds for any clothing “new..and expensive enough to be...considered offenses against taste and decency.   He has a vested hatred for anything new or modern, preferring the simple philosophies present during the Middle Ages.  Amusingly enough, Reilly’s hatred of pop culture leads to an obsession with it, watching TV and movies with an almost religious fervor, so that he can properly denounce the subject matter in one of the many Big Chief writing tablets he has scattered about his room, where he is forever revising his “masterpiece”.  

The novel’s plot pays homage to the picaresque story, as the plot is really more a series of loosely connected vignettes that flow from one to another.  I found the stories to be hilarious, with such standouts as “Ignatius’ first day at the pants factory”, “Ignatius refuses to sell hot dogs”, and the moment that had me convinced I was going to enjoy this book “Ignatius orgasms while thinking about his dead dog.”  As you can see from the descriptive titles, Ignatius’ behavior flirts with the norms of society, driving his widowed mother to despair.  Eventually she has him committed to an insane asylum, but Ignatius instead leaves the city of New Orleans to be with his equally offbeat, but opposite-thinking love, Myrna Minkoff in New York.

The novel has many interesting links to the time it was written/set, seeing as the plot takes place in the South in 1963.  Seeing as it’s a post-WWII novel, a few hilarious moments occur from characters being labeled as a “comuniss” and the ensuing outrage/debacles that occur.  The mood of Cold War America means that calling anyone a Communist is a sure ticket to end a fight, since no good American would want to be seen supporting a supposed Communist.  Additionally, Myrna Minkoff is a beatnik with left leaning tendencies, at a time in our history when the political counterculture was just beginning to take shape.Amusingly, she is just as deluded about how her ideologies come off to those around her as Ignatius, as seen in this excerpt from a letter she writes, about an African-American friend of hers: “She is such a real,vital person that i have made her my very closest friend. I discuss her racial problems with her constantly, drawing her out even when she doesn’t feel like discussing them...I can tell how fervently she appreciates these dialogues…” In a novel set during a time when racial tensions are coming to a head, Myrna comes off as condescending.  Socially speaking, people still go to the cinema, at a time when the “variety” screenings still occur, with a newsreel, cartoon, and feature.  Ignatius screams invectives at the kids on American Bandstand, yet another cultural touchstone.

The book is still popular today for several reasons: Firstly, the writing is incredibly funny. I have never laughed this hard at a book. The characters and situations are so outlandish that they can’t help but inspire hilarity.  Secondly, the novel provides an excellent snapshot of a culture at work in a particular time and place.  The Creole slang, social mores of SOuthern culture, and racial politics of the story give a unique flavor that lingers in the mind long after reading.  Dunces is a book that is well worth the time, and unlike anything else in the canon of Modern American Classics.

Doctor Strangelove

More than fifty years after it’s original 1964 release, Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy masterpiece is still as terrifying, insightful and hilarious as ever. In one regard, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb functions as a time capsule in the way it so brilliantly encapsulates the very real Cold War fears of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union and the more paranoid fears of Communist infiltration in America. However, while some of the players have changed, the threat of nuclear warfare is still a disturbing reality and something that can only really be faced via large servings of comedy. And the overall point of Dr Strangelove still remains: if something were to go wrong with the nuclear bomb, it would likely be due to human error. Furthermore, that error would very possibly be made by an over zealous nut in a position of power.

One of the defining aspects of the USA and USSR nuclear arms race was the mutual assured destruction (MAD) doctrine. The basic idea behind MAD was that if both sides built up enough weapons, then everybody would be too afraid to ever launch the first strike since the guaranteed retaliation would be too devesting. It’s a theoretically sound concept providing that both sides keep up with each other and no renegade element intervenes in the increasingly deadly standoff. In Dr Strangelove the MAD doctrine is represented by the American Plan R retaliation orders and the Russian Doomsday machine. Both are designed to set a counter nuclear attack in motion, be impossible to stop and therefore function as the ultimate deterrent. Enter Brigadier General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden), the renegade element.

After Ripper’s office at the air force base and the War Room, the final main setting for Dr Strangelove is on board one of the America B-52 planes that has been sent to drop its deadly payload on Russia. Kubrick shoots many of these scenes in a similar fashion to how he would later film the scenes aboard the Discovery One in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Initially, there’s a sense of mundane boredom and routine to the lives of the crew. Even when they spring into action the focus is on the processes and protocols that they follow. Similar to 2001 the idea is to show how automated the characters are and how their lives are dictated by technology. What makes the B-52 scenes in Dr Strangelove so entertaining is that in this almost sterile world of technology and military procedure, is the heavily Texan accented captain Major ‘King’ Kong (Slim Pickens) who puts on a cowboy hat as soon as the attack orders are confirmed. There’s something so sweet and naive about the way Pickens plays the part, which he does sincerely, and this further adds to the film’s maddening charm.Classic Hollywood cowboy and tough guy actor, Sterling Hayden is perfect as Ripper, playing the role completely straight. Scenes where he justifies launching a nuclear attack, criticises the government for not being equipped to cope with war and rants about ‘the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids’ could have come straight from the microphones of any number of contemporary talk back radio stations. A counterpoint to Hayden’s straight down the line performance is George C. Scott as General ‘Buck’ Turgidson. Scott, another tough guy actor, plays his role in the larger than life manner that Kubrick often demanded from performers such as Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Jack Nicholson in The Shining (1980). What results is Scott coming across as part high school bully, part hyperactive little boy and part fanatical patriot. He blusters through every scene set in the Pentagon War Room, only falling quiet during the occasional moment when hit by a frightening realisation or when feeling admonished.

Duck and Cover!

After nuclear weapons were developed (the first having been developed during the Manhattan Project during World War II), it was realized what kind of danger they posed. The United States held a nuclear monopoly from the end of World War II until 1949, when the Soviets detonated their first nuclear device.

This signaled the beginning of the nuclear stage of the Cold War, and as a result, strategies for survival were thought out. Fallout shelters, both private and public, were built, but the government still viewed it as necessary to explain to citizens both the danger of the atomic (and later, hydrogen) bombs, and to give them some sort of training so that they would be prepared to act in the event of a nuclear strike.

The solution was the duck and cover campaign, of which Duck and Cover was an integral part. Shelters were built, drills were held in towns and schools, and the film was shown to schoolchildren. According to the United States Library of Congress (which declared the film "historically significant" and inducted it for preservation into the National Film Registry in 2004), it "was seen by millions of schoolchildren in the 1950s."

The REAL War to End all Wars

Paper 1-Film-Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club , the prototypical 80’s high school film, opens with a scene depicting the 5 main characters arriving at Shermer High School for their Saturday detention, while also give the audience a glimpse into their home lives.  In the background, the strains of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” can heard.  As the plot progresses, this song will seem especially relevant to the events and characters of the film. Breakfast Club deals with such diverse themes as: identity, rebellion, and the fear of adulthood.   John Hughes directed the film, and the leads are: Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall.

The film’s plot is simple, but fairly deep considering the subject matter.  5 students are serving an all-day detention due to committing various offenses during the previous week.  Each student has been pigeonholed into a clique by the people in their lives: The Jock, The Brain, The Princess, etc.  The students cannot see beyond these divisions, and so start off the film mildly antagonistic towards each other.  After being assigned an essay on ‘Who they are’ by the principal, who mocks the students and brags about his authority, the kids blow off the essay, and instead spend the day talking, arguing, dancing, and getting to know each other.  As a result, they find that they have a lot more in common than they thought, developing friendships and romances, but with the knowledge that come Monday, they’ll have to act as society expects towards each other.  The movie concludes with a group essay being read over shots of the kids leaving detention, in which the kids conclude that “what we found out is that each of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?”

I love this movie, there’s no two ways about it. The fact that pretty much any teen high school movie has elements of  Breakfast Club in it makes this movie the film equivalent of Mitochondrial Eve.  Teens being better/smarter than the adults they deal with in their everyday lives, the shared experience of high school, and the way society sorts people into groups are themes that occur in pretty much any film set in a high school these days.  The fact that this film is set in the 1980’s is the cherry on top, since this was a point in history where being a Teen was becoming an entrenched part of popular culture unlike any time before, with the additional caveat that the advancing technology helped to establish a shared teen culture, as well as designate those who were ‘cool’ and uncool. Being able to watch MTV? Cool as all get out.  Knowing COBOL by heart? Get in the locker, Poindexter.  It helps that I first saw Breakfast Club while I was in high school, because it really made the film resonate for me.  The film’s timelessness and clever discussion of its themes really cement its status as THE teen movie.  Sitting down to watch will remind you just how much high school rocked/sucked, may make you want to break curfew again just for the hell of it. The Breakfast Club definitely earns its place as a classic film, since it bleeds 80’s from every single pore.

Who would have thought that the John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club would still be Hollywood’s best attempt at understanding and then destroying stereotypes? Most of Hollywood’s forays into this realm are nauseatingly patronizing and unrealistic. However, a teen movie out of the alleged “Decade of Greed” successfully shows us what it is like to be different and, at the same time, how we are the same.

The Breakfast Club is a collection of high school students who attend a Saturday detention for each of their indiscretions. The movie introduces us to the characters as the stereotypes that each student considers the other: the Nerd (Hall), the Beauty (Ringwald), the Jock (Estevez), the Rebel (Nelson), and the recluse (Sheedy). Also, we are introduced to another stereotype; the mean overbearing teacher. Paul Gleason (the KING of all character actors) is Mr. Vernon, the teacher in charge of Saturday detention.

While in detention, Mr. Vernon gives them a simple assignment. They must write an essay about “who you think you are.” Each person has a good idea of what the other is. Yet, through several discussions and arguments, they learn that they have more similarities than at first sight. The Rebel, John Bender, initially focuses his anger at Andrew the Jock and Claire the Beauty. His outward hatred towards their “good life” masks his hurt about his own life. In reality, Claire just wishes her parents gave a damn about her, and Andrew wishes he had the guts to stand up to his overbearing father. All three seem to think Brian the Nerd is the “perfect son” and doesn’t have the same problems. My only character complaint is that Allison the Recluse is not developed nearly as well as the other cast members. Her problems are more self-created in order try to get attention but at the same time, keep people away.

Each has his or her own problems and as insignificant as they might appear, to a teenager, they are everything. This is what this movie captures the best. If anything, the teenage years are a time of self-consciousness and angst. When we look back at it, it seems a little ridiculous. Yet, at that point in our lives, it is important. Parents don’t get it and teachers don’t get it.

The movie does an outstanding job of deconstructing the stereotypes of the kids. However, The Breakfast Club misses a chance to do the same with stereotypes about adults. Mr. Vernon is almost comical in how mean-spirited he is. The typical mean teacher who is more put off by kids than anything. During a scene with Mr. Vernon and the custodian, Carl (Kapelos), Hughes begins to get inside the character of the teacher. When he bemoans that the students have changed, Carl tells him “No, you’ve changed”. Hughes stopped there but he could have introduced humanity into Mr. Vernon several times by having him at least show a facial expression of regret for his actions. Actually, there is one brief scene. After a verbal tête-à-tête with Bender early in the movie, you see Mr. Vernon pause just for a second as he leaves the detention hall. Yet, the movie does not expound on this. I suspect that Hughes planned to develop this subplot but dropped it when he realized his target audience had zero interest in a non-stereotypical teacher.

Some critique the ending of the movie for being a little too contrived. Those people weren’t paying attention during the middle of the film. In a normal Hollywood movie, they would have all become best buddies. This movie, on the other hand, admits that come Monday, they probably won’t be friends. The biggest truth about high school is missed here. Most kids, while saying they want to be seen as more than a stereotype, will never take that risk. Come Monday, they will each return to their comfort zone rather than risk the ridicule of their “friends”. So while the ending leaves us with the idea that the Jock hooks up with the Recluse, the Rebel has found his Princess, and the Nerd, er…might have a couple of friends, we could also leave with the opposite idea. Come Monday, the Jock and the Beauty might be back with their kind, the Rebel might go back to hating everybody, and the Nerd and Recluse might still be ignored in the hallway. Yet, Hughes leaves that to us. How you feel about the ending might be due to which stereotype you most represent yourself with.

Things Fall Apart