Comments on: We'll meet again

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:44:20 +0000

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts!

d pruitt:

Yes, it's pretty clear what the explosions are meant to suggest, though I don't know that the Soviets can be said to have invented a doomsday bomb (the wikipedia page for the cobalt bomb only mentions Western scientists). Anyway, the doomsday bomb is only taking MAD to extremes -- for the purposes of satire it doesn't need to be real or even realistic. Interesting point about the combat scenes -- they do have a very documentary feel to them, don't they.

By: d pruitt

d pruitt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:36:17 +0000

I've always taken it to mean that once the nuclear device with Slim Pickins goes off it sets off the Doomsday Bomb (something the Soviets actually invented but as far as I know never deployed) hence the massive nuclear explosives. We'll meet again could be an allegory for 'see ya in heaven; whenever that will be'. Like all great movies the end is open to whatever interpretation one puts on it. I thought the demented Ripper and his fascination for body fluids stole the show and the short battle scenes are the most realistic I've ever seen, remember Vietnam was on at the time and war photographers were in the thick of it.

By: Ian Brown

Ian Brown — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:29:39 +0000

I used to have a great book called "STANLEY KUBRICK DIRECTS",it mentioned the use of WE'LL MEET AGAIN and said it was used to hark back to wartime cooperation between America and Britain,but did Americans even know the song?
Kubrick was of course an American who spent half his life in Britain.

But to me the reason for the use of the song is simple,the survivors will meet again but they don't know where or when because it will take many years to get back to where we were before the bomb.

By: Lester

Lester — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:59:49 +0000

I've always assumed it was just meant to finish the job of prodding people out of the usual assumption of thinking of the next war in terms of the last, which I think there was still a certain amount of in the early Cold War. The last of your ideas is... interesting... though!

"I feel that if any songs are going to come out of World War III, we’d better start writing them now. I have one here. You might call it a bit of pre-nostalgia" - Tom Lehrer

By: Liam

Liam — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:17:07 +0000

It fits perfectly with the film's sense of humour: it's bitterly, violently sarcastic. The reason Strangelove hasn't dated is because Kubrick didn't give in to sentimentalism. It's notable that of all of the music in the soundtrack, it's the only one with vocals. Try A Little Tenderness over the opening credits and When Johnny Comes Marching Home in the bomber are instrumental, and brassy. Why not have a joyful, uplifting song, when Major Kong was so happy riding the bomb?

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:59:03 +0000

Ian:

Interesting. I forgot to mention that (according to Wikipedia), it was Peter Sellers who suggested 'We'll meet again', and he was a corporal in the RAF during the war and after, so he would have had an understanding of its meaning.

Ricardo:

Yes, that is indeed one interpretation :)

By: Ricardo Reis

Ricardo Reis — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:47:47 +0000

We will all meet again, our atoms mixing in the universe, after the nucler holocaust... another hypotheses, no? :)

By: Ian Evans

Ian Evans — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:18:43 +0000

I thought it was irony. My father used to say that in 1945/6 a prime mantra in the officer's mess was "The troops are mutinying - quick, put a Vera Lynn record on the Tannoy"