Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb poses an interesting situation where the USSR creates a “doomsday device” that will wipe out live on earth if it is attacked. Theoretically, such a device should discourage any nuclear warfare, since any attack would be followed by destruction of all belligerents. However, an idea that was proposed was moving thousands of survivors into mineshafts to outlast the nuclear radiation caused by the doomsday device and reproduce in order to restart the war all over again once the fallout subsided. It reflects a darker supposition about the persisting tribal nature of humanity, an enduring part of us that wants to wipe out the other side.

I admired Stanley Kubrick’s ability to weave comedy around nuclear apocalypse, a traditionally darker topic. It reminds me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut’s style. In fact, the ending of Dr. Strangelove is very similar to the ending in Cat’s Cradle, where essentially all life is extinguished without either work really focusing on the appalling nature of the outcome. There was no gore in the movie, and the series of unfortunate events leading to the nuclear holocaust were quite humorous. Additionally, the Vera Lynn song at the end maintained levity.

Immediately after the movie ended, I realized that the title was odd, since Dr. Strangelove seemingly played a very minor role in the film. After thinking about it for a while, I think that perhaps the title is a reference to the suggestion that Dr. Strangelove made about how there would be ten women for every man in the mine shaft shelters, in order to rebuild the population.