sometimes, I miss the cold war

call me a hawkrista...

http://friends.s5.net/mazzini/ovitki/default.html

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.

For his part, he strongly suggested I read the "Life and Adventures of
Soldier Chonkin" if I wanted a humorously accurate portrait of the
Soviet system. Sounds interesting.

/rambling

Joe F.

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

"rb608" wrote in
oups.com:

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.

It is interesting Clancy's last book takes Jack Ryan by to the 80s
again for yet another cold war scenario. The bottle seems bottomless.



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.


I watched it for the first time only in the mid-90s and actually went
and bought it. Impossible for me to juxtapose the Cuban Missile
Crisis, which was close in the rear view mirror at Strangelove's
release, against my 90s viewing, but nonetheless it is one damn funny
movie.


President: You're talking about mass murder, General, not war!

General Turgidson: Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our
hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed,
tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.

Conan The Librarian wrote in
:

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.


Yes, I have seen that. I also think George C. Scott's fall near the
middle of the movie was accidental, but left in, judging by the stupid
expression on his face when gets back up.

"Skwala" wrote in message
...
call me a hawkrista...

http://friends.s5.net/mazzini/ovitki/default.html



Well, that's why they'll never tell us the truth about Rosewell. Instead of
them or us it's not liberals and conservatives and pro-war and anti-American
and life and atheists.....divide and conquer.....

john . . .in my day juvenile slaves grew up on the farm...

"Conan The Librarian" wrote in message
...

...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.

I believe the scene is a considered something of a classic by aficionados of
the "****ups left in" genre.

I, subtlety being my strong suit, first caught it on about my tenth or
twelfth viewing. Yeah, I've seen it that many times.....and more. "Dr.
Strangelove" is one of three movies (the others are "To Kill a Mockingbird"
and "In the Heat of the Night") that I, a usually, and increasingly, early
to bed kind of guy, will stay up into the wee hours to watch every time it
comes around.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has long been remiss in not
having an annual award for the best performance by an actor in a single
scene. George C. Scott's description of a B-52 bombing run as the crazed
Gen. Buck Turgidson would have been a shoo in.

And Merkin Muffley is, hands down, THE BEST character name in the history of
the arts!

Wolfgang