movie

Film Essay

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The 1964 film Dr . Strangelove or : how I learned to stop Worrying and

Love the Bomb scorns anti-communism and McCarthyism . The film is centered on

Commander Jack D . Ripper 's . Jack D . Ripper represents McCarthy he goes insane with

his own fear and paranoia and uses an emergency attack provision to send a SAC

squadron to drop nuclear bombs on Russia . His unbelievable paranoia makes him believe

the Russians are hatching an evil communist plot of fluoridating U .S water

The second

main story line is centered on the events in the War Room

George C . Scott is General Buck Turgidson , who is the foil for the President . The events

then carry to its inevitable finish , ending in a nuclear holocaust . The government and the

military are supposed to be trustworthy and competent however in the movie they are

portrayed as bumbling incompetent fools . The president Merkin Muffley 's is portrayed

as a feeble minded , indecisive President . Buck Turgidson is a ruthless scapegoat who 's

rival is the Ambassador DeSadeski , and Dr . Strangelove is handicapped with an enemy

phantom wandering hand . These absurd characters represent military men as only little boys acting out their sexual fantasies as powerful men leading the government

The 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate is less satirical and more

frightening as a portrait of a covert American Communists government conspiracy to

target the political anxieties of a liberal America . The objective is one of Cold War

political machinations and the goal is a plan seen by Communists to be implanted by

trained soldiers turning them into mindless trained assassins . The film is centered on

Bennett Marco , a major in Army Intelligence . His recurring nightmare is of his time in

the Korean War in which he sees his fellow solider Raymond Shaw murder two soldiers

3113044 Film Essay

Pg .2

Marco meets Shaw and eventually learns of Shaw 's hatred for his mother and his

stepfather , Senator John Iselin . The military are dubious about the beginning of

the dreams of all the soldiers , since Shaw holds the Congressional Medal of honor at

Marco 's recommendation . They send Marco to investigate and he discovers his entire

patrol was brainwashed in Korea . Raymond Shaw is a victim , a living time bomb

programmed to kill at any time . Marco attempts to deprogram Shaw and learns that what

he does not remember later humanizes him in the end

I think that both films are good representatives of American history they

depict the people 's fears and paranoia of an invasion by the communists as well as the

mistrust of the government . Dr . Strangelove ridiculed the exploitive fear mongering by

the government in the early 50 's . The Manchurian Candidate is a warning against the

power of a hidden communist government that still instills fear in all of us today

I would recommend students studying US history to view Dr . Strangelove

Or : How I stop Worrying and learned to love the bomb first it is a brilliant...