こちらも50周年

2012年は時計じかけのオレンジの原作本が刊行50周年を迎えました、今月の29日が映画『博士の異常な愛情』（Dr. Strangelove）の公開50周年だそうです。

Command and Control (2013/09/17) Eric Schlosser 商品詳細を見る

Command and ControlのEric Schlosserが関連記事をニューヨーカーのサイトで書いていました。

JANUARY 23, 2014
ALMOST EVERYTHING IN “DR. STRANGELOVE” WAS TRUE
POSTED BY ERIC SCHLOSSER



オープニングでは以下のような言葉で始まりますが、実際のところ大統領の承認なしに核戦争を始めることができる仕組みがあったのは確かなようです。

It is the stated position of the U.S. Air Force that their safeguards would prevent the occurence of such events as are depicted in this film. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the characters portrayed in this film are meant to represent any real persons living or dead.

この映画についてはウィキペディアが詳しいですね。

This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy about nuclear weapons, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Released on January 29, 1964, the film caused a good deal of controversy. Its plot suggested that a mentally deranged American general could order a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, without consulting the President. One reviewer described the film as “dangerous … an evil thing about an evil thing.” Another compared it to Soviet propaganda. Although “Strangelove” was clearly a farce, with the comedian Peter Sellers playing three roles, it was criticized for being implausible. An expert at the Institute for Strategic Studies called the events in the film “impossible on a dozen counts.” A former Deputy Secretary of Defense dismissed the idea that someone could authorize the use of a nuclear weapon without the President’s approval: “Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth.” (See a compendium of clips from the film.) When “Fail-Safe”—a Hollywood thriller with a similar plot, directed by Sidney Lumet—opened, later that year, it was criticized in much the same way. “The incidents in ‘Fail-Safe’ are deliberate lies!” General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force chief of staff, said. “Nothing like that could happen.” The first casualty of every war is the truth—and the Cold War was no exception to that dictum. Half a century after Kubrick’s mad general, Jack D. Ripper, launched a nuclear strike on the Soviets to defend the purity of “our precious bodily fluids” from Communist subversion, we now know that American officers did indeed have the ability to start a Third World War on their own. And despite the introduction of rigorous safeguards in the years since then, the risk of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonation hasn’t been completely eliminated.

核ミサイルに馬乗りなるシーンや、最後の『また会いましょう』の曲などは印象的ですね。



この記事以外にも、映画のシーンの解説や公開された機密文書の紹介、ドキュメンタリーの抜粋と、いろいろと充実しています。

JANUARY 23, 2014
DECONSTRUCTING “DR. STRANGELOVE”
POSTED BY ERIC SCHLOSSER


JANUARY 23, 2014
PRIMARY SOURCES: PERMISSIVE ACTION LINKS AND THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR
POSTED BY ERIC SCHLOSSER

JANUARY 23, 2014
ALWAYS / NEVER
POSTED BY ERIC SCHLOSSER

Command and Controlに関する講演会は聞き応えがあります。



実は、最初から最後までこの映画を見たことがないので、これを機に見てみたいと思います。