rb608 wrote:

Maybe it's a mid-life thing for us boomers, but I'm finding that the
Cold War is one of those things for which I frequently have to remind
myself that younger folks have no frame of reference. I'm surprised
how much of my mental baseline was composed of USA/Soviet tensions.

Nuclear weapons are still a threat, but the prospect of Soviet ICBMs
raining from the sky has faded deeper from my awareness. Bomb shelter
films are now almost humorous, and the "kiss your ass goodbye" drills
are gone.

Culturally, the Cold War was a rich field from which sprang some good
spy novels from LaCarre, Clancy, & others. The better Bond movies had
"red menace" overtones.

I began realizing this in conversations with my Russian coworker. We
share some intercultural humor, and I was recommending that he watch
"Dr. Strangelove". From the west's perspective, it's excellent dark
humor, but I wonder if he'll "get it". Without palpable Cold War
tensions, I'm not sure it's as funny.

It is. :-) I just watched it again when it showed on the Turner
movie channel. It was an experience that I can only describe as a true
sense of deja vu. The plot and characters are inextricably linked to a
particular time of my life, and rather than just halfway watching it
while I did other things, I was totally fixated on it.

Yes, it's heavy-handed and the characters are all over-the-top, but
it's a masterpiece, IMHO. (And Sellers' performances are just as
amazing now as they seemed then.)

Silly asie: Did anyone else notice that in the last scene with
Sellers playing Dr. Stangelove and doing his best to suppress his Nazi
salute, that the guy playing the Russian ambassador is visibly
struggling to hold back his laughter? I'd never noticed it before, but
it's there.


Chuck Vance