MovieChat Forums > Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Discussion > Are there really THAT many sexual refere...

Are there really THAT many sexual references in Strangelove?!

posted 14 years ago by tarantinolover12
20 replies | jump to latest

Well, after watching this movie and reading some of the posts, a couple of people have been saying that the opening scene is a metaphor for making love - I really don't see this metaphor, so I watched it again, and I just don't see how two planes flying in the sky and one getting re-fuelled can be sexual, other than the plane end looking like a penis :/
So I found this blog: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2008/10/dr-strangelove-cold-war-as-sexual.html (don't know how to make it clickable, sorry), and I find this completely ridiculous: how someone can find THIS many sex references in this movie?! It makes me wonder if this guy just has an incredibly dirty mind...but a part of me is thinking that what he's saying is true/correct, in that all these sex references were intended.
Now, I am only 17, so it might just be me trying to be mature, saying that I'm immune to recognising the sex references, or it might just be me being too naive, and I'm missing all these sex references. But if anyone would like to tell me what they think, I'd be grateful: is this guy (and others) thinking way too far into the sex references, or were all of them intentionally put in the movie?

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Say something that's against someone's opinion on IMDB, prepare to get a whole lot of hate.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] marcia_lou 14 years ago

The sexual references aren't just for kicks. I think they are to show that sex and war are both expressions of male power.

Marcia

"Oh Mr. Van Damm, you are Jewish." Judi Dench as Laura Henderson in Mrs Henderson Presents.

[–] carrava7 14 years ago

Absolutely. Furthermore, Kubrick was a very demanding director who did not make mistakes. What you see is what he planned for you to see. And to the OP: one plane mounting another (from behind, no less) to deliver fuel (life-sustaining fluids) DEFINITELY has a sexual connotation to it. Especially with the soft ballad playing and the planes gently floating as though they're dancing together.

[–] Ulex 13 years ago

Kubrick was a very demanding director who did not make mistakes.

Actually, if you look closely you can notice a mistake here or there---the Russian ambassador can't keep a straight face while Peter Sellers battles his hand.

The sexual connotation is undeniable. All of this talk of precious bodily fluids--which Jack Ripper eventually does say has to do with sex.

This was a movie where Kubrick allowed himself to go crazy. He and his screenwriters basically had the attitude of "What's the most outrageous thing we can get away with in this scene?"

[–] seamas-85553 8 years ago

Yes, the only thing missing is the planes enjoying a cigarette after the refueling.

[–] tinoynk 12 years ago

Well the entire plot of the film is put into motion because Jack D. Ripper couldn't perform in bed because the Commies were taking his "bodily fluids."

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Live and learn. At least we lived.

[–] psyclone72 14 years ago

Some people can find a lot of "sexual references" in The Great Muppet Caper, or some vague obscure cloud of dust in The Lion King. Some people just think that way, ready to be the first to see that much into it. I couldn't find much more in this film than in any other film about war and inevitable penis-shaped missiles. We're talking about cylindrical objects, that is all. Why does a penis need to become the definitive cylindrical object for our modern culture? We let that happen by rolling our heads around in the gutter.

All that aside, you needn't look any further than the ideas expressed at the end of the film about repopulating the human (/white western) race with presupposed superior genetics in an underground complex during the nuclear winter. Definitely some fascist's wet dream as made obvious by the performance, it's too easy to imagine these war-room types actually getting off thinking about that stuff.

[–] yodoc-2 14 years ago

Sexual references, and outright sexual themes, are seen in many Kubrick films. His later films almost give one the impression that he was sexually obsessed. The midair refueling scene between the KC-135 and the B-52 was nothing more than a sexual affair between the two airplanes, pure and simple. Kubrick's films are all about sex, with the possible exception of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which still has a sexually-suggestive scene with the Pan Am spaceliner docking with the space station to the tune of the Blue Danube waltz.

If you have any doubt about Kubrick's proclivities toward sexual themes, you need to see Lolita, Slaughterhouse Five, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut. Yes, the sexual references are intentional.

[–] arubi2 13 years ago

What is Slaughterhouse Five and what does Kubrick have to do with it?

[–] karsultimate 12 years ago

It is originally a novel by the (recently) late great Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I did see that movie but don't remember Kubrick being behind it (I watched it because I read the book). It's been a while, so I might give it another viewing.

There's a slogan written here. 'Happiness Will Walk Away'...

[–] darryl-tahirali 11 years ago

If you have any doubt about Kubrick's proclivities toward sexual themes, you need to see Lolita, Slaughterhouse Five, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut. Yes, the sexual references are intentional. - yodoc-2

George Roy Hill directed Slaughterhouse-Five. I haven't seen anything to indicate that Stanley Kubrick may have been involved in the film's development at some point. It wouldn't be surprising, though, as virtually every one of Kubrick's films stems from a literary source.
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"We hear very little, and we understand even less." - Refugee in Casablanca

[–] GoWFanatic 14 years ago

Yes, the movie is pretty much based around sex. Almost every main character's name is a sexual reference and the basis for why Ripper sent planes to attack Russia is because he thought the Russians were trying to contaminate everyone's sperm.

[–] kenny-164 13 years ago

Regarding the OP, I guess some people have a disinclination to view things through the prism of sex, for whatever reason, even if it is only in sublimation. But the sexual references are plentiful, to say the least.

[–] benth04 13 years ago

This movie would easily be a lot older than your parents. It's made years before the 'sexual revolution' and it is impossible in short to explain the strained morality of those days, but you should be able to find some documentaries about how the establishment in every country reacted to rock music - which was an essential part of the liberation of the 'sixties.
On the general attitude to sex, watch Inside Deep Throat
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418753/

[–] StaunchWoman 9 years ago

Represents our precious bodily fluids!

We've met before, haven't we?

[–] tyrexden 9 years ago

The plane refueling is rather obvious... that ain't some conspiracy theory that a lone nut came up with.... Its quite intentional... its not even supposed to be subliminal. There's absolutely no reason to show that particular shot, other than for the gag of it.