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Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

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Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#81

Post by j_baker »

cstross wrote: post #8

Young folks today just don't believe how downright surreal (and scary) the cold war was to live through. Look, just read this wikipedia entry about the British Blue Peacock nuclear device, and boggle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock Yes. It's a chicken-heated atomic landmine. Not a joke: it was a Real Thing. And so was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device... The M-29 Davy Crock…

I don't know. Our generation certainly had our fair share of military madness. What about the Gay Bomb? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#82

Post by pmoriarty »

Anyone who enjoyed Dr. Strangelove would probably enjoy a much lesser known film along the same lines: Seven Days in May.[1]

It doesn't have Peter Seller's brilliant acting, and it wasn't directed by Kubrick, and it's not a comedy.. but many of the themes are quite similar and both were released within days of each other, in Jan and Feb of 1964, a little over a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis.[2]

According to Wikipedia, "President John F. Kennedy had read the novel and believed the scenario as described could actually occur in the United States."[3]

[1] - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058576/

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis

[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_in_May

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#83

Post by jstatus »

bane wrote: post #18
cstross wrote: post #8

Young folks today just don't believe how downright surreal (and scary) the cold war was to live through. Look, just read this wikipedia entry about the British Blue Peacock nuclear device, and boggle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock Yes. It's a chicken-heated atomic landmine. Not a joke: it was a Real Thing. And so was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device... The M-29 Davy Crock…

I grew up right at the tail-end of it, the 1984 Red Dawn was a perfectly reasonable scenario. Whenever I think the hysteria was completely insane I think back to my parents and grandparents and some of the truly bizarre notions that happened during their youth: duck and cover, public bomb shelter drills, etc. People actually paid significant parts of their yearly salary to build, stock and maintain nuclear bomb shelt…

Fun fact -- the shelters in Montana shown on alpinesurvival.com are from a new-age survivalist cult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Universal_and_Triumphant...). I know this because I grew up in it, and actually lived on the street shown in the photo. Everybody sunk their life savings into them and racked up the credit card debt in the late 80s. Yes, connected to the cold war, but for larger "karmic" reasons of course. You should thank them though, it was only through their prayers that nuclear war was averted! Needless to say, most people didn't believe that, and membership collapsed after the Berlin Wall fell. The shelter at CUT's headquarters reportedly was able to have hundreds of people live for decades, and was the largest private shelter in the US. A whole new level of crazy, folks.

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#84

Post by caf »

filereaper wrote: post #62

The character Dr. Strangelove is itself worth an entire movie, he was supposed to be the combination of the following: - Edward Teller (Father of Hydrogen Bomb "the super") - John von Neumann (legendary mathematician and computer scientist) - Werner von Braun (designer of V2, and later on Saturn V5 for NASA) the 1900's to 1960's was an amazing time to be in a STEM field, hell being a Physicist was so freaking cool. N…

And also Herman Kahn, RAND Corporation nuclear strategist.

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#85

Post by kybernetyk »

HillRat wrote: post #17
cstross wrote: post #8

Young folks today just don't believe how downright surreal (and scary) the cold war was to live through. Look, just read this wikipedia entry about the British Blue Peacock nuclear device, and boggle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock Yes. It's a chicken-heated atomic landmine. Not a joke: it was a Real Thing. And so was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device... The M-29 Davy Crock…

My father commanded a heavy weapons company on the Fulda Gap that included M-29s. Despite the fact that the Davy Crockett was very patently a suicide machine, the military did not explain to its soldiers that the warheads' radius of effect was larger than the gun's maximum range. However, since the gun operators were chosen from the most academically-accomplished of the enlisted ranks[1], they figured it out pretty f…

> Soviet blitz doctrine in the late 1980s still envisioned using widespread nuclear attacks to soften up NATO forces or deny ground in the face of NATO attacks.

Well, nowadays Russia considers "limited nuclear strikes" a form of de-escalation: http://thebulletin.org/why-russia-calls-limited-nuclear-stri...

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#86

Post by pmoriarty »

bane wrote: post #18
cstross wrote: post #8

Young folks today just don't believe how downright surreal (and scary) the cold war was to live through. Look, just read this wikipedia entry about the British Blue Peacock nuclear device, and boggle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock Yes. It's a chicken-heated atomic landmine. Not a joke: it was a Real Thing. And so was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_%28nuclear_device... The M-29 Davy Crock…

I grew up right at the tail-end of it, the 1984 Red Dawn was a perfectly reasonable scenario. Whenever I think the hysteria was completely insane I think back to my parents and grandparents and some of the truly bizarre notions that happened during their youth: duck and cover, public bomb shelter drills, etc. People actually paid significant parts of their yearly salary to build, stock and maintain nuclear bomb shelt…

"People actually paid significant parts of their yearly salary to build, stock and maintain nuclear bomb shelters in their backyards...in places like Ohio."

See "Doomsday Preppers"[1][2]

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Preppers

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=doomsday+preppe...

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#87

Post by drawkbox »

rickdale wrote: post #9
geichel wrote: post #2

This is also true for Enemy of the State. Watch it again. Your jaw will hit the floor: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/

You are right. I just watched it the other night and I was blown away by the accuracy at which the movie portrayed surveillance and even wondered if that movie was giving out more information than what the government wants out nowadays compared to back then. We were more skeptical that these things existed back then, but now that we know they do it makes that movie dead on.

It is strange how in the US we really do get many of our issues out in film, both propaganda and progression. Movies are great and let people experience an issue through a story.

Movies are America's original pressure release valve to deal with issues and dream, could be one of our secrets to success over time. The internet is also one of those releases, the whole world needed it. Books weren't used or pop enough to really be the cultural tracking. Movies really do tell our history.

Enemy of the State also had lots of starting actors, yes Jack Black was a NSA agent linking your transactions, Jamie Kennedy, Seth Green also agents.

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#88

Post by kybernetyk »

tripzilch wrote: post #77
rickdale wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. I just watched it the other night and I was blown away by the accuracy at which the movie portrayed surveillance and even wondered if that movie was giving out more information than what the government wants out nowadays compared to back then. We were more skeptical that these things existed back then, but now that we know they do it makes that movie dead on.

I remember watching this film, just a few years after it came out and thinking, "All of this is technically possible ... but they probably wouldn't go that far, or have the infrastructure in place". Now I know better. I was indeed recently pondering I should watch it again, just to see what my reaction would be.

Heh, I watched it when it came out and thought it was mostly the typical hollywood computer sci-fi they put into computer films to make it more exciting for the average viewer. Sadly I was wrong.

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#89

Post by arca_vorago »

jstatus wrote: post #83
bane wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up right at the tail-end of it, the 1984 Red Dawn was a perfectly reasonable scenario. Whenever I think the hysteria was completely insane I think back to my parents and grandparents and some of the truly bizarre notions that happened during their youth: duck and cover, public bomb shelter drills, etc. People actually paid significant parts of their yearly salary to build, stock and maintain nuclear bomb shelt…

Fun fact -- the shelters in Montana shown on alpinesurvival.com are from a new-age survivalist cult ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Universal_and_Triumphant... ). I know this because I grew up in it, and actually lived on the street shown in the photo. Everybody sunk their life savings into them and racked up the credit card debt in the late 80s. Yes, connected to the cold war, but for larger "karmic" reasons o…

Was it really that crazy considering all the "we were about to press the button but didn't" stories that have surfaced about that era since? It was a very real possibility.

Re: Almost Everything in “Dr. Strangelove” Was Based on Fact

#90

Post by pmoriarty »

arethuza wrote: post #70
PythonicAlpha wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in Middle Europe was not less surreal at all in this times. While the US people thought, that their Minuteman, other missiles and strategic bombers would give some protection, in Germany many people knew, that a third world war could not only start there, but also be the main place where it would be fought. When in some era (I think, it was in Reagan's era, maybe a little later), the Generals where thinking, t…

Same for the UK - optimistic estimates for the impact of a nuclear attack on the UK had under 5% of the population surviving in the long term (NB Threads was very optimistic!).

Threads is probably the most chilling nuclear holocaust movie I've ever seen. Highly recommended (if you can find a good copy).
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