Introduction
Satire in movies and films are a humorous piece of work where the actors use wit to criticize something usually human faults. Sometimes satire within a movie can be sarcasm, irony, or ridicule to human vice or deed, which exposes the earlier mistakes typically made for the corrective purpose. Human beings are subject to doing risky deeds, which later can be considered to be inhumane. The role of films in such cases is to try to create moral judgment and to help in creating a morally informed consent to evade similar cases in the future. The test evaluates the use of satire in two famous films; Dr. Strange and The Original Manchurian Candidate. The two films have presented political issues in the form of a humorous piece of art that demystifies the impact of social injustice in sarcasm manner.
By investigating Dr. Strange "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bomb", the title of the film is presented in ironies manner. It is humorous that the actor no longer worries about bombs and even loves it. The director of the film presents the genre in a truthful approach in the beginning and later bends the issue slightly all through ("The Real Dr. Strangelove"). The film tries to dramatize the issue of what would happen to the world if all Superpower countries surrender their atomic bombs. The ridicule to the topic creates pithy humor, which is later build-up by Dr. Strange by creating a deliberately exaggerated conversation about the bombs not only resulting to world war III but also creating an end to human existence. Dr. Strange argues that, due to potential possibility of annihilation, he has since then learned not to fear about bombs.
In Dr. Stranger's film, a war predicament is presented, and the issue of military power in a blundering in a humorous manner. The film broadly uses satire in its literature setting in order to present a social comment. The political crisis presented tends to be readily accepted in any form of ruling. For the case, it is obvious that any ruling party will accept the work presented in a comical manner than revolutionary work where characters try to revolt directly. There are a number of factors portrayed by the film, such as sociopolitical setup and the impact of imagery in creating a scenery story.
Considering the environmental setup surrounding the setting up of the film, it is evident that, there was high tension during the range of cold war. World War II had already come to the end as well as the Berlin wall fall in 1990, within that period, there was no military sarcasm. The issue of the war was doom, no one had any idea whether it may break out. Superpower countries such as America and Russia by then rested their war technology advancement on lethal weapons which could possibly blow the world within a split of a second.
All over the world, there were issues of the sudden nuclear threat. One of the major cause of tension was the Cuban missile Disaster, which serves a major role in building-up more pressure on citizens. Cuba being in coalition with communist Russia, a more intense situation intensified as the nuclear weapons were tested towards the coast of Florida, which simply caused fear to rise between the American territories. All through, Florida citizens were constantly threatened by being wiped out.
Back in the 1960s, there was a possibility of a possible bomb attack that could easily wipe out humanity. Intense situations like this, it was not clear to have a future perspective. On the other side, the critics of Dr. Strange were a mutual assurance of potential destruction, a major military step simply meaning annihilating both conflicting parties. The happening of Cuban nuclear-powered missile was too memorable to Dr. Strange has he was opening film Theaters across the country.
The director Kubrick uses satire widely to criticize the cold war tension back in those days. By using irony, a critical difference from the recent truth and oneself is created, creating intense humor situations. It is humorous at the film opening regarding the airplane refueling during a flight. Questions like ". Do you see how such a visual composition, as depicted in the picture below," could mean implicit masculinity within the military setting in those days? Therefore, Dr. Strange Critics and sarcasm on war presents extreme military indictment in an abusive manner.
The Manchurian Candidate
The setting of the Manchurian film is handled with many events freshly in American people's minds. Earlier events such as the assassination of Kennedy, the televised Army McCarthy hearing, and the tension rising from Cuban missile were some of the red scares within people's minds. The film presents a satirical piece of political disclosure to the citizens by performing a scary action that leaves most of the viewers amid possible tumor rejuvenation.
There are many assassinations taking place around the current ruling power, the issue of politics, consolidation, and consensus are being sieged in almost all directions. There is a growing sense of direction, as referred by Norman mailer, "The revealed reality of American society" (Marcus, 79). Mailer daydreams of petitioning Kennedy as an existing hero "Finally the superman comes to the Supermarket," reflecting the second hostile life in America.
Amid the existing tension, the film, "The Manchurian Candidate," comes up to scare citizens raising a supposition that leaves most of its viewers tense. This means the viewers would be suckers enough to believe the story. The film uniquely expresses satire by presenting a young man who had been captured by the Communist in the Korean War campaign. The young fellow has been brainwashed in Korea to do high-level assassination assignments.
On returning home, he is quite wild to his people. The film director Alfred Hitchcock presents the film in as vivid and taut manner, which could mean a reflection of the current society. By carefully evaluating the actions within the film, it can be concluded to be a satirical thriller on political and social irony. The issue of brainwashing is sarcastic to the military operations as well as the role played by political parties in convincing citizens to fight back to their community. The film actors satirize the government through voluntary disclosure of actions leading to enmity creation between citizens.
By evaluating both, Dr. StrangeLove and the Manchurian candidate, it is evident that satire is widely used in films and movies to break down political tensions in a humourous manner. In both cases, the setting of the plots was surrounded by stress, which could not be broken in either way. By comically presenting the ambiguous issues, the viewers can create a distance between themselves and the situation, and laugh.
Works Cited
"The Real Dr. Strangelove." Real Dr. Strangelove, The, 2007.
Marcus, Greil. "Sources." The Manchurian Candidate, 2002, pp. 79-79.
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Satire in Movies: Criticizing Human Faults for Moral Judgment - Essay Sample. (2023, Mar 16). Retrieved from https://proessays.net/essays/satire-in-movies-criticizing-human-faults-for-moral-judgment-essay-sample
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