Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1954)

This was a very interesting movie. It starts out with what seems like a very distraught man in hospital and then he was asked to explain himself. When he does, the movie proceeds to go to a flashback about Miles' story. Overall, the story proves itself to be a very scary movie for its time. During the 50's, the Cold War was still going on but it seems like this movie doesn't reference any nuclear war type fear or paranoia. It seems the direction of the fear is towards McCarthyism because these pod like creatures were out to erase all of mankind in order to have society be equal and have an ideological world. By the end of the movie, you can see that the pods were starting to expand past the city of Santa Mira. This brings it back to the ideas of Communism because the pod people wanted to have everyone act as the same, without emotions, and this would lead to an eventual communism within the govenment and society. 

Strangelove Pictures

http://grumpasaurus.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_dr_strangelove.01.jpg
http://brianholmes.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/dr-strangelove.jpg
http://blog.calgarypubliclibrary.com/blogs/movie_maniacs/dr_strangelove_large_06.jpg
http://www.channel4.com/film/media/images/Channel4/film/D/dr_strangelove_xl_01--film-B.jpg
http://www.1ts.org/%7Ekcr/pix/dr_strangelove_war_room_generals.jpg

Seminar Reflection 05/12/09

During our seminar today in Peter's class, my seminar group discussed the comparisons between the "Fat Man" reading, Failsafe, and Dr Strangelove. In the end, we actually described more about the reading than the actual movies because Herman Kahn had so many ideas that each of us had questions about. We spent some time talking about a quote from Kahn, "War is a terrible thing, but so is peace." This was related to the fact about birth defects in the USA and how if a nuclear war occurred, that there would be a slight increase in the percentage of birth defects due to radiation of a nuclear explosion. We each had a similar to this quote, thinking that Kahn meant that we already have birth defects in the USA and a slight increase in percentage would not matter and thus proving that our country already isn't necessarily 'pretty' as it is right now.

I personally did not have any questions during the seminar and it seemed any questions that we had, were at least somewhat answered by the end.

Dr. Strangelove Review - 05/12/09

After watching Dr. Strangelove, I actually understood the problems that could happen if a nuclear war had occurred during this time. Dr. Strangelove provided a comedic version to the movie, Fail-Safe, which I enjoyed more because of this. In the beginning of this movie, I was a bit thrown off by the approach of the director when trying to compare to Fail-Safe because the characters had different emotions than Failsafe and it seemed this movie had a funnier approach than a serious one. My favorite part of this movie would probably be when the President was talking with 'Dmitri' and how it seemed like Dmitri didn't really understand what the President was saying and as it went on, it got funnier because of the way the President needed to repeat himself over and over again.

When comparing this movie to Herman Kahn, Strangelove is definitely a more comedic approach to the problem of nuclear war as to where Kahn has a more serious tone but is also willing to lose American lives to win the possibility of a war. Strangelove has the same ideas as Failsafe, just in a different tone.

One thing I would like to learn more is how the Doctor in this movie helped in the planning with the President because it seemed like he would just give random ideas and solutions to whatever could happen with the Soviets when the bomb eventually dropped.

05/11/09 HW (Nuclear War Photos)

http://msrb.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/mushroom-cloud-hb.jpg

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/images/mk6.jpg

http://mlleomphale.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/failsafe.jpg

http://www.fraggerock.com/admin2008/uploads/fallout3_logo.jpg

http://www.historylink101.com/ww2photo/atomic-bomb-fat-boy.jpg

http://www.treehugger.com/nuclear-war-co2-emit.jpg

http://www.clusterflock.org/fallout_shelter.jpg

05/06/09 HW

In the film Fail-Safe do you think the president approached the crisis in the right way or do you think he should have followed the advice of the Mr. Groeteschele (the civilian Professor who wanted to attack).

I am not sure if the president approched this problem very well. When you know that something is wrong, you don't just continue doing it. If I were in the President's shoes, I might have just sent out all of the bombers towards the Soviets. I say this because; What makes you think that the Soviets will believe its an accident anyway? They knew you had the technology to do it so they would probably retaliate regardless of the fact if its an 'accident' or not. The President in this movie, after Moscow was bombed, showed to be vulnerable at the end of the movie because of him ordering his bombers to bomb New York to show the Soviets that it was a 'mistake'. Why would you want to bomb your own city just to show that "We're Sorry!"? You might as well continue with an all-out attack on Soviet Russia and at least have a chance that none of your cities will be bombed. If you have been 'at war' with these people for some time now, why are you waiting to negotiate a result out of it? Just do what Americans do, invade and bomb (i.e. WW2).

One thing I want to know more about was exactly why the President in Fail-Safe did not want to do anything? What was he waiting for? How come he didn't bomb the Soviets yet? Why didn't he take a "Kahn" approach to this war?

05/05/09 HW

1) Who was Herman Kahn and what were some of the main ideas in his book, On Thermonuclear War?

Herman Kahn was a man who wrote a book describing his ideas on a Nuclear War, if ocurred, and what he believes the U.S. should do if and when a nuclear bomb drops on the United States. One main idea that Kahn had, according to his book, was that nuclear war was definitely possible. His second idea was that the war was winnable. Throughout the first chapter of his book, it describes possible scenarios of what could happen after the bomb dropped.

2) What is your reaction to his ideas so far?

I don't like the idea of a nuclear war but I at least commend Kahn for thinking about possible ways of working with the idea of a nuclear war. This whole story reminds me of the game, Fallout 3, in which you are a person who had been living in an underground vault your whole life while a nuclear war had been going on outside on the surface. Eventually, you leave the vault and realize that the Earth has now become a desolate wasteland where the amount of radiation you take in can affect how long you have to live as much as being chased down by mutants that survived the bomb. An underground vault might be a better idea than just waiting for it to happen like what Kahn suggests because you still would have your body unaffected and birth defects would not occur from radiation as well.