Pertinent and humorously to the point, this classic from the Sixties is just as meaningful today as it was in the heart of the Cold War, especially since we are about to launch an attack that makes about as much sense as General Jack Ripper's (Sterling Hadden) reason to preserve our precious body fluids.

Hollywood could make a second edition of this movie, maybe with Don Rumsfeld in the role of General Buck Turgidson, the animated character played by George C. Scott in the original. One of my favorite scenes is when Turgidson wrestles with the Russian Ambassador for taking pictures of "the big board" and President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) says; "You can't fight in here, this is the war room."

The late Peter Sellers would be hard to replace since he played three roles. Not only was he President Muffley, but he was Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, on loan from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and acting adjutant to General Ripper. And of course, Sellers was also the wheelchair bound Dr. Strangelove (whose real name was "Merkwurdichliebe" before he defected) and has a great deal of trouble with his prosthetic right arm. In the final scenes, he rises from his wheelchair, extends this right arm, and says; "Mein Fuhrer, I can walk."

The central theme of this movie is détente, the Mexican standoff we had with the Russians for forty years or so. Through a loophole called "Plan R" General Ripper deploys about forty B-52s loaded with two hydrogen bombs each from their "fail safe" positions and they can't be recalled. There's only so much time before Russian radar picks them up and retaliation is on the way.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it turns out the Russians have a device known as the "Doomsday Machine" which will automatically be deployed once they are attacked. The Doomsday Device will put a shroud of lethal "Cobalt Thorium G" over the entire earth for 93 years. It will destroy all plant and animal life, making the earth as dead as the moon.

The Russians developed this device because it was cheap and they could no longer afford "the arms race, the space race, and the peace race." They also heard, through the New York Times, that the United States was working on such a device so they set out to close the "Doomsday Gap." A fact that is confirmed by Dr. Strangelove when he recounts his experiences with "the Bland Corporation."

In other words, if your enemy is going to get you then you might as well go out in a blaze of glory and take everyone else with you. The Doomsday Device is the ultimate détente in its proper perspective as vengeful suicide.

The movie denies any resemblance to real persons living or dead, of course, but we all know who Dr. Strangelove is meant to be. We knew him in the Sixties, and we should all recognize him now, especially since he's come back to play so prominently in our lives.