This is an analysis of the sexual themes in Stanley Kubrick's classic film 'Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Bomb!'
DR. STRANGELOVE: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
Title 2 (3:15-11:33) (7:42) Stop after Kong says “Let’s get this thing on the hump.”The SAC at Burpleson Air Force Base has a large force of B-52 bombers airborne 24 hrs a day. Each bomber carries 40 megatons worth of nuclear explosives, equal to 16 times of all the explosives used by all of the armies in World War 2. Jack D. Ripper (Sterliing Hayden) puts the base on Condition Red and orders Mandrake to transmit Wing Attack Plan R notifying all bombers to attack Russia. Ripper then orders Mandrake to impound all the radios on the base immediately.
My viewpoint
The Doomsday Device is activated by Jack D. Ripper who acts on his own without authorization from the President, retroactively shutting down the base and confiscating all of the radios on the base to cut off any incoming our outgoing communications; then, he orders his Captain, Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) to transmit Plan R to all the bombers letting them know to be on standby. The only time the bombers receive Plan R is after America has already been attacked. And since no one on the base but Ripper has a radio, no one knows that he is actually lying about the Russian attack.
Wikipedia:
During periods of increased tension in the early 1960s, SAC kept part of its B-52 fleet airborne at all times, to allow an extremely fast retaliatory strike against the Soviet Union in the event of a surprise attack on the United States. This program continued until 1990 when the bomber wings were placed on quick reaction ground alert and were able to take off within a few minutes. SAC also maintained the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP, pronounced "kneecap"), also known as "Looking Glass," which consisted of several EC-135s, one of which was airborne at all times from 1961 through 1990. During the Cuban missile crisis the bombers were dispersed to several different airfields, and also were sometimes airborne. For example, some were sent to Wright Patterson, which normally didn't have B-52s
Title 5 (14:54-19:17) (4:23) Stop at “Fused control-burst at 12,000 feet."
Ripper announces on the PA that the Russians are planning to invade the base and he orders all soldiers to shoot first and ask questions later. Back on the bomber commanded by Major Kong sets the CRM discriminator on the plane’s radio that will prevent any radio transmission that’s not preceded by the correct 3 letter prefix.
Title 7 (19:52—26:01) (6:09) Stop at “Far beyond the point I would have imagined possible.”
Captain Mandrake accidentally turns on one of the radios and realizes that America is not under attack and that Ripper lied. Ripper locks himself and Mandrake in his office. Meanwhile at the Pentagon, US President Merkin Muffley receives the news from Colonel Turgidson (George C. Scott) that 34 B-52 bombers are enroute to drop nuclear bombs on targets inside of Russia.
My viewpoint
The Doomsday Device is under the command of 1 man now that the only person who knows the 3 letter code is Jack D. Ripper. Not even the President can interfere with the planes. Now the Doomsday Device is set and as we will see in the following scenes, all attempts to stop it will fail.
Title 13 (40:43—45:29) (4:46) Stop at “A device which will destroy all human and animal life on Earth.”
President Muffley phones the Soviet President Dmitri Kissov who tells the President that if the American Planes attack Russia they will set off the Doomsday Device which will destroy all human and animal life on Earth.
My viewpoint
The Doomsday Machine or Device corresponds to the plane under Major Kong’s command. Nothing will be able to stop it from carrying out its mission.
Title 15 (49:57—52:44) (2:47) Stop when Turgidson says “Gee, I wish we had one of them Doomsday machines!”
The US Director of Weapons Research and Development, Dr. Strangelove, explains how the Doomsday Machine works.
My viewpoint
You notice Soviet Ambassador Alexei De Sadeski’s says that the Doomsday device is “nothing a sane man would do.” He is referring to both the Doomsday Machine and to Jack D. Ripper who is not sane, also. Finally, we get to see the movie’s namesake, the Director of Weapons Research and Development, Dr. Strangelove who is a former Nazi patterned after a conglomeration of Nazi Scientists who were brought to America under a protection program called Operation Paperclip for employment after World War II. The most well-known of these Nazi scientists is former SS member Werner Von Braun who invented the Saturn V Rocket for NASA where he worked for decades. When Strangelove explains the machine notice the parallel between the machine and Ripper with the statement “Because of the automatic and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling..” Jack D. Ripper rules human meddling out of his mission by getting Mandrake to confiscate all of the radios and having all the planes to adjust their radios to only receive messages that had the special 3 letter code.
Title 16 (54:03—1:01:53) (6:50) Stop after Ripper kills himself
The soldiers at Burpelson shoot it out with the US Army but they are outmatched and surrender. Ripper knows that the government will torture him for the code and he commits suicide.
My viewpoint
This is the 1st attempt to stop the Doomsday device that was triggered by Ripper’s belief that Russia is polluting America’s water supply with fluoride, a theory he became aware of “during the act of love, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness.” This statement is also a key to understanding the true meaning of the phrase “purity of essence” and why this phrase is the code to “withdrawing” the bombers. The bombers in this film are symbols for the male reproductive organs and the target is the female reproductive organ, in this case it is referred to as the Doomsday Machine, a machine that once triggered is irreversible. When Ripper admits to enjoying women but denying them his essence he is describing coitus interruptus and if you look at the bombers as penises the ‘recall code’ is the equivalent of pulling out. But, with Ripper, who represents the ‘head’ or consciousness, is killed, there is no intelligent agent to keep the planes from emptying their in loads Russia.
Title 18 (1:01:50—1:05:25) (3:35) Stop at “Give me full power!”
The bomber heading for Russia survives a missile strike and continues towards its destination.
My viewpoint
This is the 2nd attempt to stop the Doomsday Machine a.k.a. the 34 bombers headed for Russia. Russian missiles shoot down 4 bombers. Major Kong’s plane is badly damaged but survives.
Title 19 (1:05:27—1:07:43) (2:16) Stop at “All right, Charlie, I’ve been wasting too much time on you.”
Mandrake figures out the recall code from a recurring phrase Ripper had doodled on a piece of paper
My viewpoint
The recall code “purity of essence” in this film is a sexual metaphor for the act of coitus interruptus or what’s better known as the pull-out method. Earlier when Mandrake asked Ripper about his theory of Russia polluting our water supply, Ripper told Mandrake that he became aware his essence during the physical act of love, “a profound sense of fatigue” and a feeling of emptiness. This analogy fits perfectly when you look at the recall code (or pull out code) as another way of saying coitus interruptus or pulling it out before climaxing or ejaculation or, in this case, dropping the bomb. And you notice also that the so called Doomsday machine cannot be stopped once started. This means that one who loses himself in the act of lovemaking is totally committed and follows through to completion or total emptiness. But Ripper told Mandrake that he learned how to enjoy women without giving them his essence or allowing himself to ejaculate. In other words, he learned how to deactivate the Doomsday machine by using a ‘recall code’ or pulling out before his sex drive went to autopilot. The bombers are phallus’s or penises competing for one woman. A woman can only take 1 penis at a time which explains why only 1 bomber makes it to the drop point or climax which is what happens as a result of the Doomsday device being activated. This analogy of many penises or men competing for 1 woman also explains the fact that there is only 1 woman in this entire film. So, in a nutshell, the Doomsday Machine is a sexual metaphor for the involuntary forces that take place during the act of sex between a man and a woman and the recall code is coitus interruptus or the act of pulling out. The damaged radio is the inability to think rationally or to pull out during the act of ejaculation and the chain reaction of bombs going off is a metaphor for a woman having multiple orgasms. I say this because the bomber only drops 1 nuke, typical of males, and the Doomsday Machine responds to this “bombing” with multiple eruptions.
Wikipedia
Coitus interruptus, also known as the rejected sexual intercourse, withdrawal or pull-out method, is a method of birth control in which a man, during sexual intercourse, withdraws his penis from a woman's vagina prior to orgasm (and ejaculation), and then directs his ejaculate (semen) away from the vagina in an effort to avoid insemination.
Title 22 (1:13:14—1:19:11) (5:57) Stop at “Give me a heading on that just as soon as you get it worked out.”
The recall call works and 30 of the 34 planes turn back. At first it was assumed that 4 planes were hit by missiles but 1 of those planes, the plane under the command of Major Kong, survived and is still heading towards Russia. But the hit the plane took from the missile damaged it badly and it’s leaking fuel and won’t make it to its primary target. Instead, it selects a closer target.
My viewpoint
Again, the Doomsday machine defies any attempts to reverse it. Its radio is damaged and unable to receive the recall code. This is the disconnection of the body from the mind’s conscious ability to control the act of sex as represented by Ripper’s suicide earlier in the film. Also, still looking at this from the standpoint of sex, the plane is running out of gas or in a humanistic sense, getting tired and unable to reach its primary target and selecting a “closer” target, in other words, premature ejaculation. I know this sounds strange but what is this film’s namesake—Strangelove? And every metaphor I’ve used in this presentation lines up perfectly with the clips I’ve compared them to.
Title 25 (1:21:58—1:27:45) (5:47) Stop after bomb explodes.
The bomber’s bomb doors are stuck and Major goes down into the bomb bay to open them. He crimps some wires together in the bomb door’s circuit box and the bomb doors open and he rides the bomb out of the bay and down to its target. The nuclear bomb sends a giant mushroom up above the clouds.
My viewpoint
Again, something comes up to prevent the bomber from dropping its payload but fails. The bomb doors, damaged by the missile earlier, are stuck and Major Kong has to open them manually. In the sexual context of this presentation, the stuck doors are the inability to ejaculate due to fatigue. Remember, the plane is running out of fuel. Major Kong getting the doors to open and riding the missile (you notice that the "Bomb" is between Kong's legs? The bomb is a penis) like a rodeo cowboy into its target .
Title 28 (1:32:58—end)
The Doomsday Device sets off many explosions all over the world.
My viewpoint
In response to the bomber, or the male, dropping the bomb or, in the context of this presentation, climaxing, the Doomsday bomb reciprocates Kong's bomb by setting off multiple bombs or orgasms engulfing the world in flames.
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