This is the War Room.

         It would be wrong to have a blog named after Stanley Kubrick's film "Dr Strangelove: Or How  I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" and not blog about it. Strangelove is about how miscommunication and paranoia could lead to the end of the world. On a more basic level, the movie is about war and sex. This movie was made in 1964, only a year or so after 13 days that almost put us in a nuclear war. Kubrick grew up in the atomic era, he was very knowledgeable on political matters, and was fascinated with the human race in a pessimistic view. Strangelove captures the fear that we felt during that time and delivers a wonderful satire on the confusion of the government. 

        Sex, a huge theme in Strangelove, strangely enough there is only one woman in the entire movie. The names of the characters in the movie can all be related to sex or something sexual. The man at the bottom of the page riding the atomic bomb, his name is T.J. Kong. Kong as in King Kong, the infamous ape who met his end because he fell in love with a woman. General Ripper, his name originates from "Jack the Ripper", the infamous serial killer of prostitutes in England. Emasculated by the Russians, Ripper wants to get even, claiming the Russians took the purity of his essence. Ripper launches the attack, and the plot ensues (I don't want to spoil the movie). Kubrick uses this theme of sexuality and emasculated men to play on how the U.S. government could have ended the world, just to prove that we were a strong nation. A pissing contest if you will. The movie is full of phallus shape objects, and triangles galore. Kubrick was truly a strange man, but he knew how to hide things in his movies that related to his themes. Strangelove is a great movie that can be analyzed to no end. 

T.J. Kong rides the Atomic bomb all the way to armageddon. Courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb_enh-lores.jpg