Dr. Strangelove: An Epic Cold War Satire

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2020)

In the modern world, we are often under the illusion that power is distributed among thehands of many people and each of us make a difference to the world. But real power rests on the hands of a few who fail to recognize its value and end up misusing it.
The Cold War is a perfect example of how much havoc is caused when a few men have the power to destroy the world. Dr. Strangelove is a satire of the Cold War which shows the absurdity of the technological arms race between Soviet Union and USA at that point.
The Russians have developed a "Doomsday Machine" which is designed to automatically launch a counterattack if Soviet Union is bombed, a counterattack that would lead to the destruction of the world. Nobody is bothered about the suffering of the common people. They are busy playing a sick game of revenge where both sides are trying to construct a weapon that would enable them to wipe out the entire human population from the face of the earth, so as to deter the other from attacking them.
Meanwhile General Ripper, an Air Force general who is convinced that the "Commies" are conspiring to contaminate his bodily fluids by fluoridating the water, single-handedly startsWorld War III by ordering one of his bombers to launch an attack on Russia. The American President is informed of this event by General Turgidson but when he tries to contact Ripper, he finds out that all communication has been cut so there is no way to recall the bomber. Eventually, he has no option but to call the Soviet premier saying "One of our base commanders, he went and did a funny thing Dimitri..."
Captain Mandrake, the executive officer of Ripper, has guessed the code and tries to save the world by calling the president but he hasn't got enough change for the call. It is too late as the bomber has already launched a missile, with Major Kong riding it to the ground. The movie ends with Dr. Strangelove, the mad scientist giving his theory about how the human population could survive by living underground and the next generation returning to the surface 90 years later.
Dr. Strangelove is a hilarious movie containing ironic statements like "You can't fight in here. This is the War Room". At the same time, it is a little depressing as it depicts the arbitrariness of the Cold War. It shows how a big an impact a few people could have on the entire world. Common population became the victims just because two men wanted to play with their power.