Satire in film holds true today

I'm not immediately aware of any other comedies concerning the imminent destruction of the world via nuclear power, so I suppose it's safe to call "Dr. Strangelove" the best of that bunch. Not only that, but it's one of the best comedies, regardless of how dark it may be, in film history.\nFilm master Stanley Kubrick's first true masterpiece still holds up today as not only an effective and hilarious satire of high-level political and diplomatic policy, but a damn fine cautionary tale as well. Comic legend Peter Sellers portrays not one but three of the central characters (a British military officer, the President of the United States and a mad German scientist), and George C. Scott delivers an ingenious performance primarily by way of his pronounced vocal and facial expressions. Perhaps the most notable performance, given our world today, is that of Slim Pickens as an gleeful Texan pilot who's convinced that the Russkies are out to get America. His exit from a plane atop a nuclear warhead is the defining visual of the film.\nFor the 40th Anniversary DVD, Columbia Pictures has produced a fitting documentary called "Best Sellers: Peter Sellers Remembered," which showcases the comedian's finest moments. Most importantly, though, the documentary "No Fighting in the War Room" or "Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Threat," a piece on the realities of the film including interviews with Bob Woodward, Roger Ebert, Spike Lee and U.S. Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson years Robert McNamara, is as effective as any DVD documentary to date.\nGiven the fragile state of the union today and the constant barrage of fearmongering that we can be assured will continue for the next four years, "Dr. Strangelove" is more essential viewing now than it was when originally released during the height of the Cold War.