From: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: dr. strangelove
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:54:36 EST
Reply-To: "eric walker" <eric.walker@channel1.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Channel 1 Communications

     TIME Magazine's cover story on their August 10 issue talked about
newly released data of the US Military's "Doomsday Plan," developed in
the 1950s in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.  It
seems that last-case scenario plans dealing with nuclear war were not
only designed: several times, the White House came dangerously close to
giving the "go" to activate them.The Soviets had a similar plan, of
course.
     Sounds like the stuff of nightmares, doesn't it?
     What's especially ironic about this newly declassified "doomsday
blueprint" is how it was predicted so accurately, 28 years ago, in
Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying
And Love The Bomb."  Thinking about this subject gave me an urge to turn
on the TV and watch this Cold War masterpiece one more time.
     Don't forget that even though the Cold War is fading behind us, the
threat of nuclear destruction has not ended.  There are still thousands
of nuclear warheads in existence, carefully aimed at almost every spot
on Earth.  What would happen if a situation arose where someone, perhaps
someone insane, actually took action to start a nuclear war?  What would
happen then?
     The possibilities make "Dr. Strangelove" less outlandish and more
realistic - and this is a truly frightening thought.  However, these
thoughts also increase the black comedy and the humour of the movie,
by making it seem even more like real life.  The TIME article never
mentions "Dr. Strangelove" - but nonetheless there are similarities
between it and the movie.  All of the photographs in the article are
in black-and-white, just like the movie itself.  Black-and-white can
deliver such emotions as shock and terror quite easily, especially with
the images that we see in the article.
     In "Dr. Strangelove," the disaster comes through implementation
of an insane idea called "Plan R." ("R for Romeo" - sex, sex, sex!)
Well, it turned out that there was a real-life Underground Pentagon
called "Site R!"
     In the movie, the generals talk about running the country even
though the world is coming to an end.  In real life, every federal
agency was given a plan on how to survive even after a nuclear attack.
     In the movie, the nuclear survival plan made sure to include the
top military and political leaders of the country - after all, they
certainly didn't want to suffer the consequences of their own mistake.
In real life, a huge "Underground Pentagon" was built to shelter the
members of Congress, and the top military leaders of the armed forces
too.
     In the movie, there was the Big Board that monitored the entire
country, and the Soviet Union too.  In real life, there was the Bomb
Alarm board, dotted with hundreds of lights that would flash on to
indicate the sites of nuclear explosions.
     About the only thing the real-life Doomsday Plan doesn't have that
"Dr. Strangelove" did was the sex.  Or does it?  Apparently the
real-life plan - which is called "Plan D" - ,makes sure that the
inventory of the underground Presidential bomb shelter included
birth-control pills: "not because of any anticipated sexual activity but
so that female officials would not have to interrupt their pill-taking
cycles."
     The article doesn't say why female officials were taking these
pills in the first place.

     "Mein Fuhrer!  I can walk!"
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