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Dr. Strangelove and Company
Accuracy in Academia ^ | January 24, 2011 | Allie Winegar Duzett

Posted on 01/25/2011 8:40:14 AM PST by Academiadotorg

At the Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention in Los Angeles this month, one of thousands of English professors gave a lecture on a popular film. Although millions have seen this particular movie, it may be safe to say that few of those viewers have examined Dr. Strangelove with the interpretation offered at the MLA.

Dr. Joseph Litvak of Tufts University argued that Dr. Strangelove is not just a former Nazi, but that he is also a Jew—a claim Litvak makes based on somewhat questionable evidence (the doctor’s hair and crippled body, and the fact that his creators listed several Jewish people as having inspired his character). The fact is, while Litvak argued that Dr. Strangelove’s possible Judaism is an “open secret” with “radioactive potency,” the “open secret” is never actually acknowledged. As a further part of his thesis, Litvak argued that the struggle between Dr. Strangelove’s left and right arms represents the struggle post-blacklist Hollywood faced in rebelling against the “vast military industrial complex” of the right-wing.

Strangelove’s “Nazi identity is as irrepressible as his [left] arm,” which is always going into a Nazi “erection,” Litvak argued, going on to say that Strangelove’s left hand “struggles in vain” to keep his right hand down—representing the struggle between left-wing Hollywood actors and the allegedly right-wing leadership of America prior to and during the filming of Dr. Strangelove.

(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Education; History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: drstrangelove; mla

1 posted on 01/25/2011 8:40:15 AM PST by Academiadotorg
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To: Academiadotorg

They ACTUALLY PAY people to write this BS. SIGH...


2 posted on 01/25/2011 8:43:28 AM PST by US Navy Vet
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To: Academiadotorg

Seriously??!!!


3 posted on 01/25/2011 8:44:02 AM PST by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different)
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To: Academiadotorg

A Jew and a Nazi at the same time. Hmm. Does the name, George Soros come to mind?


4 posted on 01/25/2011 8:45:55 AM PST by Inwoodian
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To: US Navy Vet
There is an important fact that the writer has apparently missed here. IT IS A WORK OF FICTION!!"
5 posted on 01/25/2011 8:50:04 AM PST by davisfh (Islam is a mental illness with global social consequences)
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To: Academiadotorg

They couldn’t just tackle the hideous use of “myself” (as in, “give it to myself”) and instead wasted time on THIS??


6 posted on 01/25/2011 8:51:11 AM PST by Explorer89 (And now, let the wild rumpus start!!)
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To: FReepers
Have You Donated Yet?


7 posted on 01/25/2011 8:53:07 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are at your door! How will you answer the knock?)
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To: Academiadotorg

Just wow....What do they say about Slim Pickens riding the nuke at the end?


8 posted on 01/25/2011 9:03:56 AM PST by ozark hilljilly (Y'all had enough, yet?)
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To: Academiadotorg
Boy, talk about sucking all of the fun out of something.
Why can't they just watch it for the sheer genius of Kubrik, Scott, and Sellers as they paint a masterpiece.
geeze............
9 posted on 01/25/2011 9:07:43 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: ozark hilljilly
"What do they say about Slim Pickens riding the nuke at the end?"

Frued wouldn't have to say much, really.


10 posted on 01/25/2011 9:18:44 AM PST by TheThirdRuffian (Nothing to see here. Move along.)
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To: Inwoodian

Don’t forget Reinhard Heydrich.


11 posted on 01/25/2011 9:20:49 AM PST by Emperor Palpatine (I'm shocked! Shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here!)
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To: Emperor Palpatine
Don’t forget Reinhard Heydrich.

Very true. Himmler despised him, but Hitler knew that even if Heydrich had some Jewish blood, that Heydrich's determination to 'kill the Jew inside of him', coupled with his intelligence, was too valuable. Although not many in the SS shed a tear when he was assassinated.

12 posted on 01/25/2011 9:23:51 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: Inwoodian

“A Jew and a Nazi at the same time. Hmm. Does the name, George Soros come to mind?”

Actually it is believed that Stanley Kubrick modeled the Dr. Stangelove character after Henry Kissinger:

“If you remember the eerie final shot of his horror film The Shining (1980) Kubrick uses a period still photograph hanging on the haunted hotel’s wall to reveal the Jack Nicholson character as being a reincarnated axe murderer. The importance of photographic inserts is central to Dr. Strangelove as well. When first seen the B-52 bomber pilot (Slim Pickens) is admiring a Playboy centerfold (Tracy Reed billed as Miss Foreign Affairs) whose buttocks are covered by a strategically-opened January 1963 edition of Foreign Affairs magazine. If you look it up, a lead article in that edition is by one of the long-rumored models for the Strangelove character, Henry A. Kissinger, who was already advising the Kennedy White House on revamping U.S. nuclear policies to make them more useable, including a first-strike option and more funding for fallout shelters.”

...

“Peter Sellers admitted that the business of using a black glove was suggested by Kubrick himself, although the anarchic arm was probably an inspired Seller’s improvisation”

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0112.html

More trivia at:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0017.html


13 posted on 01/25/2011 9:25:45 AM PST by 4FreeSpeach
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To: 4FreeSpeach

I also read that the character of Dr Groteschele in “Fail Safe” was modeled on Henry the K.


14 posted on 01/25/2011 9:49:06 AM PST by Emperor Palpatine (I'm shocked! Shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here!)
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