Most people would say there is nothing funny about nuclear annihilation.

Obviously they haven't seen Stanley's Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

When a general for the United States military goes "a little funny in the head" and orders a squadron of planes to attack Russia, the stage is set for one of the darkest comedies in cinematic history.

The only way to bring back the planes is through a special three letter recall code, but unfortunately the only person who knows the code is the slightly crazy base commander Gen.
Ripper (Sterling Hayden). Ripper be-
lieves the Commies are secretly infiltrating society's "precious bodily fluids" and will stop at nothing to see the attack through.

Meanwhile his second in command, Capt. Mandrake (Peter Sellers), tries frantically to make sense out of the
situation and find the recall code to avoid war.

At the same time, the president of the United States (also Sellers) is in the "war room" on the phone with the Russian Prime Minister to avoid an international crisis, and his advisor, the bizarre Dr. Strangelove (Sellers once more), is working with a Russian ambassador
who speaks of a "doomsday machine" that will destroy the world if Russia is attacked.

Throw in a cowboy from Texas (Slim Pickens) as a pilot on one of these Russia-bound planes and a general (George C. Scott) who doesn't think it's fair to condemn the whole program because of a single slip-up, and you've got an eclectic mix of unforgettable characters.

Dr. Strangelove was voted by visitors to the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb. com) as the greatest comedy of all time and was honored by the American Film Institute as the third greatest in the genre. The film was also nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Although the movie was released in 1964, its main themes are still highly pertinent today, particularly with the increasing possibility of a war with Iraq.

When Ripper questions if war is too important to be left up to the government or if it is too important to be left up to the generals, modern viewers are just as likely to garner a response as those who saw the film nearly forty years ago.

The film asks other important questions, such as, can we trust our lives in the hands of the military and government? And, can one person's mistake destroy the entire world?

In the film, every person in authority is shown as completely incompetent, which brings huge laughs but at the same time really makes the viewer question how exaggerated these displays of idiocy
are when compared to real-life counterparts.

Whether you're for or against war, Dr. Strangelove is a film to see to try to make sense of these questions and get some great laughs as well.