Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999), is widely regarded as a masterpiece of "black comedy" (a work that derives humor from a subject not usually considered humorous). For most people, nuclear war would probably top the list of unfunny subjects, but Kubrick demonstrated otherwise, earning the film three Oscar nominations in the process.

The 1964 film was based on a novel by Peter George (1924–1996) called Red Alert (1958). It is interesting to note that George's novel in turn inspired the 1962 novel Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick (1918–1965) and Harvey Wheeler (1914–). Fail-Safe was a grimly realistic story about a computer failure that nearly causes a nuclear war. The film version of Fail-Safe was released in 1964, the same year as Dr. Strangelove.

In Dr. Strangelove, psychotic Air Force general Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden, 1916–1986) orders the thirty-four nuclear bombers under his...