Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Inefficient Power Structures

The inefficiency of bureaucracy and how power disillusions and corrupts.

The ineptitude from those at the top of the ladder trickles down the system and infects any and all of high standing in its hierarchy.

It is interesting to note that the only consummate professionals seem to be the active soldiers, the ones that are at the bottom of the chain, thought of only as expendable fodder; the detached talking heads with their shiny medals and crisp uniforms in the war room think nothing as they send them to their pointless deaths over and over.

It begs the question if it's the power of high standing itself that creates that distance that Turgidson and the other generals so gleefully parade around in. Does the very nature of the power structure in place breed a budding apathy for those in the front lines? Does it compound with every promotion, to the point where you're in an echochamber far removed from all danger, surrounded by others that share your attitudes?

Kubrick pokes fun at these ideas by presenting the falseness of the war room;

e.g. comparing the war room's general half-hearted concern towards the world's end against their impassioned Cold War-informed paranoia, the premier's and the president's overly polite niceties, the quickness of the pivot from the horror of nuclear catastrophe to devising a potentially debaucherous and self-preserving bunker plan...

Of course, it would be vital that top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. Heil! Actually, they would breed prodigiously, yeah?

Great men, the top brass really!

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 2nd May 2024