# Dr. Strangelove. What dis the Russian ambassador doing with that pocket watch at the end? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456 "2013-03-09T03:23:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/41 "2013-04-18T19:17:01Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > I just thought that was Strangelove’s inner Nazi, getting quite envigorated about the idea of war and its preparations. That’s what _I_ thought. As the stress of the crisis builds, Strangelove seems to be reverting towards (or reliving) his earlier Nazi behaviors and training. (His arm also stabs out in the Nazi salute, too, as he experiences more and more stress.) His regaining the use of his legs seemed (to me) to indicate that maybe his paralysis probably stemmed from a psycological issue, and not a physiological one. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/42 "2013-04-18T19:30:13Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > BUMP > > Got around to re-watching this last night, inspired by this thread. Having seen it again, I’d have to say that no, it isn’t open to interpretation. [Wikiquotes](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove) includes some quotes from the script that make it clear: The immediate scenario would thus be as in _On the Beach_, where people are waiting to die. Of course one might question whether it will be possible to organize such people to take the “quick survey” and “make improvements in dwelling space” before they die. > > Having said that, however, I agree that when you watch the movie in real time it isn’t emphasized, and the ending feels rushed, confusing, and unsatisfactory. It isn’t clear, in the final scene in the War Room, whether the players even know that Kong has dropped his bomb. This takes the edge off the absurdity. > > Sometimes you need cheesy old-fashioned exposition: “I have just received word that a nuclear weapon has detonated over the Soviet Union. The last plane must have gotten through. Within minutes the Doomsday Device will detonate! Within ten months the surface of the earth will be uninhabitable!” Would it help if you knew the original ending was supposed to be a [pie fight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pie_Fight.jpg)? It was filmed and scrapped. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/43 "2013-04-18T20:46:34Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Would it help if you knew the original ending was supposed to be a [pie fight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pie_Fight.jpg)? It was filmed and scrapped. I did know that, and it reinforces my feeling that the existing ending is a cut-and-paste job. It stands out, because the rest of the movie is so well-constructed. I have to say, I think a pie fight would have been worse. The theme of the movie is people doing absurd things for very serious and logical (to them) reasons, and I don’t know how you sustain that through a pie fight. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/44 "2013-04-18T22:31:00Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Having said that, however, I agree that when you watch the movie in real time it isn’t emphasized, and the ending feels rushed, confusing, and unsatisfactory. It isn’t clear, in the final scene in the War Room, whether the players even know that Kong has dropped his bomb. This takes the edge off the absurdity. > > Sometimes you need cheesy old-fashioned exposition: “I have just received word that a nuclear weapon has detonated over the Soviet Union. The last plane must have gotten through. Within minutes the Doomsday Device will detonate! Within ten months the surface of the earth will be uninhabitable!” Old fashioned exposition the way Kubrick did it in his next movie? 😃 We know the bomb went off, and given how closely they were watching there is no way they didn’t know the bomb went off - and the mine shaft bit, which they wouldn’t do if it hadn’t, seals the deal. I suspect lots of people today don’t get the final joke. “The mine shaft gap” is a reference to the (spurious) missile gap which JFK used in the 1960 campaign. BTW, the novelization says this is one of the annals of dead civilizations, so in that version at least they don’t make it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/45 "2013-04-18T23:36:39Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I suspect lots of people today don’t get the final joke. “The mine shaft gap” is a reference to the (spurious) missile gap which JFK used in the 1960 campaign. I find the “mine shaft gap” particularly amusing because suggests that if they can’t compete over who has the bigger missile (phallus) they’ll choose to compete over who has the deeper hole (vagina). The whole movie is packed with snarky sexual overtones, from the eroticized refueling shots at the beginning, to Buck Turgidson’s interactions with his “secretary”, to Ripper’s obsessions with keeping his essence pure, to characters named Mandrake and Merkin Muffley. Kubrick reduces nuclear warfare to a big dick wagging contest. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/46 "2013-04-18T23:59:16Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > I did know that, and it reinforces my feeling that the existing ending is a cut-and-paste job. It stands out, because the rest of the movie is so well-constructed. > > I have to say, I think a pie fight would have been worse. The theme of the movie is people doing absurd things for very serious and logical (to them) reasons, and I don’t know how you sustain that through a pie fight. I have to say I agree with all of that but I still think it is a brilliant scene from a comedic genius. One of the funniest scenes ever put on film. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/47 "2013-04-19T01:15:01Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I find the “mine shaft gap” particularly amusing because suggests that if they can’t compete over who has the bigger missile (phallus) they’ll choose to compete over who has the deeper hole (vagina). The whole movie is packed with snarky sexual overtones, from the eroticized refueling shots at the beginning, to Buck Turgidson’s interactions with his “secretary”, to Ripper’s obsessions with keeping his essence pure, to characters named Mandrake and Merkin Muffley. Kubrick reduces nuclear warfare to a big dick wagging contest. Not to mention the focus on how much sex will be required to repopulate the earth - the men will have to perform prodigiously and the women will have to be selected for extraordinary sexual attractiveness! The look on George C Scott’s face as Sellers explains this is brilliant, he’s practically drooling in anticipation. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/48 "2013-04-19T03:45:04Z")
Yeah, he was looking forward to becoming a turgid young buck. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/49 "2013-04-19T04:14:08Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Not to mention the focus on how much sex will be required to repopulate the earth - the men will have to perform prodigiously and the women will have to be selected for extraordinary sexual attractiveness! The look on George C Scott’s face as Sellers explains this is brilliant, he’s practically drooling in anticipation. I like to compare Scott’s performance in _Dr. Strangelove_ with that in _Patton_. It’s almost the same character; the difference is subtle, but it makes Turgidson absolutely hysterical. (Context probably helps, too.) He was brilliant in that movie. Hell, everybody was brilliant in _Strangelove_. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/50 "2013-04-19T06:17:42Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I find the “mine shaft gap” particularly amusing because suggests that if they can’t compete over who has the bigger missile (phallus) they’ll choose to compete over who has the deeper hole (vagina). The whole movie is packed with snarky sexual overtones, from the eroticized refueling shots at the beginning, to Buck Turgidson’s interactions with his “secretary”, to Ripper’s obsessions with keeping his essence pure, to characters named Mandrake and Merkin Muffley. Kubrick reduces nuclear warfare to a big dick wagging contest. The centerfold Major Kong is looking at is his secretary - she really is, just picked for other than typing skills, no doubt. As for character names, we also have Jack D. Ripper, Premier Kisov, and Colonel Bat Guano. (When I was in grad school our standard name for PDP-11 batch files was guano.bat) And don’t you think the president is a ringer for Adlai Stevenson? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/51 "2013-04-19T14:16:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And don’t you think the president is a ringer for Adlai Stevenson? One of the things I love is how the President plays it straight all the way through. Speaking of lookalikes, to later audiences, Dr. Strangelove’s curly hair and German accent evoke Henry Kissinger. But Kissinger was an obscure professor in 1963, and not one associated with nuclear game theory, and was _not_ one of the many influences on the character. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456/52 "2013-04-22T01:52:23Z")
Re Kubrick’s “wheelchair trope:” classic post modern critical bullshit. Sellers, originally cast also as the pilot, fell from the aircraft set, and had to use a wheelchair. Someone here mentioned a wheelchair correspondence, to which the above applies (but the poster wasn’t being all arty-critical). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-strangelove-what-dis-the-russian-ambassador-doing-with-that-pocket-watch-at-the-end/652456.md?page=2)