I strongly disagree. I think it's impossible to fully capture the mindset and zeitgeist of that time, but to the extent it is possible, there is a reason that Dr. Strangelove resonated so strongly.
This was the time of the "missile gap" (later found out to be the product of paranoia and bad intelligence). Of the RAND Corporation and MAD. Of the RAND Corporation and the doomsday machine (yes, the one in Strangelove was modelled after Szilard's proposal). Of reducing command and control over nuclear arms to ensure maximum possible retaliation. Open air testing of h-bombs. The massive buildup in nuclear arsenals (in 1950, the US had built less than 2500 warheads; in 1965, it had over 31,000- for comparison's sake, there are less than 6k today).
This is something that was best exposed not by soberly looking at how terrible nuclear war was. It was done before, and it was done after. Instead, what Dr. Strangelove did brilliantly was expose the madness at its core. The crazy and insane stupidity of it all. A crazy system, designed by fallible people.
That was the sick joke that worked. You have to remember that this was still before the public turned because of Vietnam. We still believed in the "Defense Establishment" - the same one that many people were veterans of (WW2). Through satire, the whole system was disabused.
Correctly.
That's the difference. It's easy to make a film that makes you feel bad. But making a film that shows you that the whole system is crazy? That took genius. After all, "Make a movie about the nuclear annihilation of humankind that forces the viewer to question not just the events, but the whole friggin' system ... and also, you know, funny!" is not something most people could tackle.
