I never really understood Stanley Kubrick's films until I read Jay Weidner's deconstruction and now it's hard to see any other way of interpreting them. I was reading a review of Clockwork Orange just last week that didn't even touch on the key themes with Andy McDowell descending into trivia over aloof directors once the film was finished.
I just completed watching Dr Strangelove to see what I could get out of it. The first time I watched it with my political mentor I didn't find it funny, though now I know about Project Paperclip the over the top Nazi Scientist makes sobering sense and though there's plenty of parody and caricature in the movie it's on the money over the big themes of hidden cold war power play, paternalism (not one woman in the movie), brain dead and brain washed military subordination, missiles as extension of penises and gum chewing as the signature of primate aggression (I never figured that out till watching Kubrick linger on it more than once).
There's a clear mention of water fluoridation disguised as pinko Commie plotting though it doesn't shirk from describing the intended result of a docile and unimaginative public. I might be reading a little too much into the war room scene of a Saturnalia ring of lights above the war council but Kubrick knew full well of Saturn worship at the highest levels.
I only wish I could see the unedited cut of Eyes Wide Shut that was censored by the film studies before Kubricks untimely and unexpected death just days after completion. It was previewed and its first showing to the film studio who weren't happy with the candid revelation of Satanic sex rituals at the highest levels of elite U.S. society (although it applies with all elites)
For the cryptographers among you I have a hunch that Kubrick dropped something into the nuclear key codes scene of Dr Strangelove that were scribbled onto a notepad and essential to prevent the world descending into thermonuclear war. Let me know in the comments if you see anything.
