m.a.d.: mutually assured destruction

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2006)

soviet Russia failed, ultimately, because they simply ran out of money. they could not sustain the arms race which gobbled more than half their GNP every year. the Russians were armed to the gills but finally had little to protect.
they were a nation that squandered their valuables on the best safe they could buy, but then didn't have anything left to put in it.
thus they come up with the doomsday device but ineptly neglect to tell the rest of the world as pointed out by strangelove. who is a mad genius in the art of warfare, propaganda, and is loyal to the ones who give him the means to pursue his ideals.
I've seen this film over 10 times and get the same laughs every time. 'you cant fight in the war room', 'shoot it open you twit thats what the bullets are for' 'purity of essence' 'mine shaft gap'. you see, in an extreme perverse way this is the mindset of those who put us in the position of constant low level fear of nuclear missiles.
its the way they get us to fall in line and support them, the bushists are still doing it 'terrorist alert status' because it works !!! some of the roles in the film were tailor made for the actors: Scott, Sellers, Hayden. this is Kubrick's best.
I was a teenager in that period and recollect all the hysteria of the Cuban missile crisis, B52s flying training missions over SW Ontario from 20,000' up ( you can tell by the angle of the wings and number of vapor trails, 4 pairs of engines) believe it or not I also recollect sputnik flying over I actually saw the dot of light moving quickly across the sky.
all you have to do is a bit of digging to find some American hawks that were perfectly willing to bomb Russia in a first strike as a preventive measure. because of course they might hit us first later if we don't hit them now.
nuts. the politicians were all nuts. and if the weapons had developed a wee bit faster for one side or the other, then maybe the impetus for first strike would have been too strong to resist.
and the notion that 'maybe' we're lagging a bit in our supply of weapons, therefore we must design and build better ones, is interpreted by the other side in the same vein and when they see the other side gaining an 'edge' in type and number of weapons, they too engage in research and manufacture of more. that was the essence of the arms race, the lingering fear and doubt, the nagging fear maybe the other power was ahead of you so you better acquire an 'insurance' edge fed the frenzy.
the film captures the absurdity, fear, technology, simplistic views, male dominance (only 1 woman in the film and she's a floozy) all combined with the usual effect of Murphy's's law.
tremendous film. my only 10/10 so far