The relevence of satires during the cold war era - A study comparing Dr Strangelove and Thirteen Days

Borrowing words from Paul Boyer, “Of course, Dr Strangelove is not a historical film in the conventional sense.” Stanley Kubrick didn’t, in all probability, make this satire as a lesson for future history students to study. Nevertheless, we the students can gain an interesting insight into the era from the style and content of the movie.

The early 1960s were characterized by the growing conflict between the two political poles of the world, each one trying to establish military, technical and moral superiority over the other. It didn’t help matters that everyone was scared of technology and there was a constant communication gap between the Soviet and Western leaderships, and this just increased the mutual mistrust. Dr Strangelove takes these elements and exaggerates them enough to show make a moc...