Dr.+Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove & Stanley Kubrick

1. In the movie //Dr. Strangelove//, Stanley Kubrick uses a form of satire in his choice of background music. As Dr. Strangelove came out in 1964, this choice of music to humor the realism and seriousness of an idea present in a film had huge effects on his, along with others’, choice of music for future films. For example, in Kubrick’s film //Full Metal Jacket//, he decides to have the soldiers, in the scene walking past burning buildings in the night, sing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song, effectively creating a soundtrack, and also relaying back to that use of music in a satirical sense; this is also apparent because of the whole satirical approach Kubrick takes in Full Metal Jacket to the Vietnam War.

Another thematic motif that is seen in Dr. Strangelove that surfaces again in many of Kubrick’s works, is that of the twist that Kubrick puts on the movie. I believe that this, twist, or possibly the origin of wanting to put a twist sort of comes from Kubrick’s style of developing movies based off of books he has read. Many of Kubrick’s movie ideas are developed from books he has been influenced by, and I believe this is why many of Kubrick’s movies have a satirical twist to them, as it sort of allows Kubrick to differentiate his movie from the book. However, beside the point of him reading the books, this style of satirical comedy in re-occurs in most of his movies. For example, Dr. Strangelove having been made during the cold war era and speaking basically about the worst-case scenario, Kubrick still had the guts to humor the topic.

The first director’s choice I’d like to talk about for Kubrick is his use of a shot that goes on for a long time. I’m not talking about a long shot in the sense of depth, but of time. He uses at least one of these shots in a few of his iconic movies, and I find that they are there to help build tension. It’s almost uncomfortable seeing the same shot, uncut, for such a long period of time, but Kubrick does it in //2001: A Space Odyssey//, when Bowman and Poole are speaking in the pod about Hal, in //Lolita// when Lolita and Humbert are driving trying to evade a car that’s been following them, and even in //The Shining//, when Danny is riding on his tricycle throughout the hotel.