After four years of legitimate political insanity, it's safe to say a lot of people are sick of political satire. The real political world is more interesting than any exaggerated joke version could ever be. But there’s a rich history of political satire, arguably reaching its peak with Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War lampoon Dr. Strangelove.
It’s tough to make a political movie work, because it inevitably has to take an ideological stance, and that stance will inevitably alienate audiences who don’t agree with it. Still, from the Marx Brothers to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, plenty of filmmakers have nailed that.
Dr. Strangelove Is The Best: It’s Still Relevant Today
The Cold War may be over for decades now, but Dr. Strangelove remains as relevant today as it was in 1964. The threat of nuclear war is always hanging over the world, the image of the War Room will always ring true, and there are still plenty of conspiracy theories like General Ripper’s theory about the Communist water-fluoridation plot.
It’s not easy for a comedy – especially a political comedy – to maintain its relevance for more than half a century. In fact, it’s practically impossible. But Kubrick did it.
Closest Contender: Duck Soup
Widely regarded to be the Marx Brothers’ finest comedy, Duck Soup is a scathing satire of geopolitical conflicts. Groucho’s iconic character Rufus T. Firefly is begrudgingly appointed the leader of the bankrupt nation of Freedonia at the behest of a wealthy benefactor.
The neighboring country Sylvania takes advantage of Firefly’s poor leadership and sends two spies to usurp him. Mussolini took the film as a personal insult and banned it in Italy as a result, much to the Marx Brothers’ delight.
Dr. Strangelove Is The Best: Every Scene Is Like A Live-Action Political Cartoon
The screenplay for Dr. Strangelove – credited to Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George – is constructed of scenes that play out like live-action political cartoons.
For example, the scene in which Mandrake orders a soldier to shoot a Coca-Cola machine in order to get enough quarters to call the President of the United States on a pay phone could be a political cartoon on its own.
Closest Contender: In The Loop
Armando Iannucci is one of the UK’s greatest satirists, so it was no surprise that when he brought that brand of satire to the big screen, it was a sight to behold. Iannucci has since made The Death of Stalin, another great political satire, but In the Loop is still his magnum opus.
A movie adaptation of the criminally underrated sitcom The Thick of It, In the Loop paired Iannucci’s incisive take on British politics from the original series with his incisive take on American politics, which he’d later explore further in HBO’s Veep.
Dr. Strangelove Is The Best: Peter Sellers Lampoons The Entire Political Spectrum In Three Performances
Peter Sellers stars in Dr. Strangelove in three roles – the mild-mannered U.S. President, an awkward British RAF exchange officer, and the titular Nazi scientist – and in three hilarious, distinctive performances, Sellers captures the entire political spectrum.
President Merkin Muffley has nationalist ideologies, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake has a fair and balanced libertarian perspective (exemplified in his conversations with General Ripper), and Dr. Strangelove has extremist views, as well as dangerous scientific knowledge to back it up.
Closest Contender: Team America: World Police
In response to the Bush istration’s invasion of Iraq and the 2000s’ endless slew of Team America: World Police.
Satirizing everything from U.S. military intervention in foreign conflicts to celebrities hypocritically weighing in on political issues, all with Thunderbirds-style puppets, Team America hits all of its targets.
Dr. Strangelove Is The Best: The Ending Is Perfect
The end of Dr. Strangelove is as perfect as any ending in film history. Major Kong riding the bomb down to the ground beautifully encapsulates the absurdist tone of the film, while the President’s fears about the “mineshaft gap” brilliantly lampoon the notion of mutually assured destruction.
And the final montage of nuclear explosions, set to Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again,” is a haunting reminder that WWII-era optimism is antiquated in the uncertainty of the nuclear age.
Closest Contender: Election
Not every political satire is about politicians. Alexander Payne’s Election satirizes political issues through the lens of an overachieving high school student named Tracy Flick (played by Reese Witherspoon in one of her career-best performances) running for student body president.
The hilarious irony comes from the student body presidential race being just as cutthroat as a U.S. presidential race. According to Payne, this is Barack Obama’s favorite politically-themed movie.
Dr. Strangelove Is The Best: As Ridiculous As It Is, It’s Entirely Plausible
The most shocking thing about the plot of Dr. Strangelove is that, no matter how ridiculous it gets, it’s entirely plausible. It was initially developed as a straight drama, but Kubrick retooled it as a comedy when he realized that the film’s realistic scenarios for nuclear war might come off as unbelievable.
In fact, the events of the film are so accurate that its success led to changes in government legislation that would prevent life from imitating art.
Closest Contender: The Great Dictator
Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced The Great Dictator as a scathing critique of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and fascism in general at the height of the Second World War.
Starring in dual roles as the protagonist, a Jewish barber, and the antagonist, a thinly veiled portrait of Hitler called Adenoid Hynkel, Chaplin made the definitive big-screen political satire that wouldn’t be topped until Dr. Strangelove came along.
