When my son was a senior in highschool, he took an elective course in acting. For his final exam, he was to perform one of the monologues done by Peter Sellers in the RAF officer role in "Dr. Strangelove", So, to give him an idea of the context, I rented the film and he, a freind of his, and I watched it. I was chortling happily away and the two teens kept looking at me as if I was crazy. That was until they ran the credits at the end. The credits are run over pictures of nuclear explosions while the music is the old song, "We'll Meet Again, Don't Know Where, Don't Know When." At this point, the utter ridiculousness of the entire film began to dawn on my son who started to laugh. His poor friend never did get the joke, even after we tried to explain the concept of "black humor" to him. The film led to my son and I having several long talks about what it was like growing up during the height of the Cold War.
BTW, "Dr. Strangelove" was the first film to see anything humorous, even in a "black humor" kind of way, in the basic strategies of the Cold War and in Nuclear Deterrance.
BTW, "Dr. Strangelove" was the first film to see anything humorous, even in a "black humor" kind of way, in the basic strategies of the Cold War and in Nuclear Deterrance.
