NUCLEAR ANXIETY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE FILMS, DR. STRANGELOVE AND THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

Abstract

Due to the Cuban Missile Crisis between the USA and the USSR in 1962, the nuclear war was closer than ever. This situation thought as the most terrifying result of the Cold War era has also been the subject of film productions. Director Stanley Kubrick, satirically and critically, portrayed the US and Soviet politics of the time in his film "Dr. Strangelove." Conversely, John McTiernan's film "The Hunt for Red October," released in 1990, presents the politics of that era through American conservative values. These films reflect the policies of the era of unipolar world order, while also shed light on the transition period to a multipolar world order. In 2014, the Russian Federation's military intervention in the Crimean Federal District marked the beginning of a new era. In the following years, the Russian Federation expanded its military operations into Ukraine's interior regions, and consequently, this leads to concerns about nuclear threat once again. In this time of nuclear concerns has risen again, it is seen critical evaluate these films in the current context. These films, which present the politics of the era from different perspectives, were analyzed comparatively using a critical discourse analysis method.