Seven satirical war films that are somehow less ridiculous than real life

Trump's bumbling decision to bomb Iran recalls classic comedies from Dr. Strangelove to In the Loop—but is much less funny

This week has felt like 2003 all over again — but not in a good way where everyone is still using flip phones and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are still Hollywood’s hottest couple.

No, it has felt like an early aughts flashback because, once again, we have an American president using dubious reasoning to stoke war in the Middle East and prematurely declare “mission accomplished.” (And receiving alarmingly credulous media coverage.)

Compared to Bush, however, Trump’s warmongering is even more reactionary, impetuous, and clearly motivated by his wounded ego.

A week after throwing himself a big, expensive military parade that turned out to be a resounding flop and was vastly overshadowed by nationwide protests, the president decided to bomb Iran, angering some of his most blindly loyal supporters. And now he’s angry at the inspectors who claim the attack did little to thwart Iran’s nuclear program — which was their whole point. At least in theory.

It’s so ridiculous that it almost defies satire. Had a screenwriter concocted any of this, they would have gotten a single note from the studio: “NOT BELIEVABLE.”

Still, there are numerous fictional films that shed light on Trump’s dangerous antics. Here’s a look at some of the best.

In the Loop

Released in 2009, just as Obama was taking office, In the Loop skewers the catastrophic foreign policy of the Bush-Blair era and the self-serving bureaucrats who enabled it. Co-written and directed by Armando Iannucci, who would go on to create Veep, the film begins with a hapless politician committing a gaffe. Amid speculation about a possible war in the Middle East, a middling government minister played by Tom Hollander tells the BBC, “To walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict.” The gaffe triggers a freakout among functionaries on both sides of the pond, including foul-mouthed Scottish press secretary played by the great Peter Capaldi and a cautious Pentagon general played by the also great James Gandolfini. Any similarities between the circumstances depicted in this film and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are, of course, coincidental. (Stream on Prime Video, Mubi, and elsewhere.)

The Death of Stalin

Nobody does political satire better than Iannucci, who also co-wrote and directed this pitch black comedy set in the days following the death of the maniacal Soviet leader, who in the film is worshipped so completely that at first none of the sycophants in his inner circle are even willing to say that he has done the most human thing of all (die). The ridiculously stacked cast includes Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Tambor, and Steve Buscemi. It’s not technically about war, but The Death of Stalin deftly captures the groveling mindset that enables authoritarianism. (Stream for free on Tubi.)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 nuclear age satire is not only one of the most influential and prescient American comedies of all time, but it may also be the greatest film to ever lose the Academy Award for best picture. (My Fair Lady took home the prize instead.) Dr. Strangelove was released at the height of the Cold War, and sparked unease at Columbia Pictures, which only agreed to finance the film if Peter Sellers played multiple roles. (He was originally supposed to play four characters, including the eponymous scientist, but scaled back to three). Despite his involvement, the studio took pains to distance itself from the project. Co-writer Terry Southern recounted a phone call in which a studio executive told Kubrick, “The publicity department is having a hard time getting a handle on how to promote a comedy about the destruction of the planet.” It turned out to be a subject with broad, enduring appeal. (Stream on the Criterion Channel.)

The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin began filming The Great Dictator in September 1939, just days after the start of World War II. The film, in which he plays both a mad dictator named Adenoid Hynkel and an unnamed Jewish barber facing persecuted under Hynkel’s regime, brutally mocks Hitler. But it also offers “a crystalline reflection of the 21st Century's despots,” as the BBC wrote in 2021.

Full of the physical comedy for which Chaplin was known, The Great Dictator was also Chaplin’s first proper sound feature. Fittingly, it concludes with a stirring five-minute monologue in which the barber, mistaken for Hynkel, calls for peace: “Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.”

The Great Dictator was a box office smash in the U.S. and was nominated for five Oscars (though, like Dr. Strangelove, it was passed over for best picture). But at a time when isolationist sentiment in the United States remained widespread, Chaplin’s masterpiece was not embraced by all: in September 1941, the filmmaker was called to testify before a Senate subcommittee investigating supposed “propaganda in motion pictures.” Two months later, the U.S. was at war. (Stream on Max.)

M*A*S*H*

Robert Altman’s 1970 film follows a medical unit during the Korean War, but is widely understood as a critique of the then-raging Vietnam War. The irreverent genius of the movie lies in its unique perspective. Instead of situating viewers on the front lines, it takes them inside makeshift hospitals with surgeons (played by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, and Elliott Gould) attempting to repair bodies torn apart by war and trying to maintain their own sanity with grim humor. M*A*S*H*, which bears the distinction of being the first mainstream Hollywood movie in which someone utters the F-bomb, was nominated for five Oscars, but ultimately lost best picture. Are you sensing a theme here? (Stream on Prime Video.)

Wag the Dog

This Barry Levinson film stars Robert DeNiro as a D.C. spin doctor who enlists a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to stage a fake war overseas to distract the public from a presidential sex scandal. In one of the most awkward coincidences in American political history, it was released in December 1997, weeks before the public learned of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. As timely as Wag the Dog was back in the late ‘90s, it only seems more prescient three decades on. (Side note: In a painful irony, the screenplay was co-written by David Mamet, who is now a staunch Trump defender and claims the 2020 election was stolen. Maybe it’s time for a Wag the Dog rewatch?) (Stream on Prime Video.)

No Man’s Land

In this bleakly funny Oscar-winning 2001 film, two wounded soldiers — one a Bosnian, the other a Serb — find themselves stuck in a trench with a third guy who had been presumed dead and is lying on top of a landmine that will explode if he moves. Their precarious situation comes to the attention of the U.N. and the news media, yet instead of receiving prompt assistance, the men become pawns in an international game of spin. No Man’s Land was written and directed by Danis Tanović, a documentarian who followed the Bosnian military during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s and brings authenticity to a story about the futility of war. (Stream for free on PlutoTV.)