Fail-safe (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Fail-safe (Special Edition)
Movie Review: The sky is very bright, all lit up --
Summary: 5 Stars
"Fail Safe" must have been even stronger during its release in 1964 in the height of the cold war, just a year or two after the Cuban missile crisis. Even today in the 21st century, it still holds up well, and still is food for thought. Can a nuclear war be won? If it was accidentally started, how would you, as president, proceed? Your choice might not be the same as Henry Fonda's, but his does have some logic to it.
Filmed beautifully in black-and-white with strong lighting and photography, the movie features a long list of established or up-and-coming actors including Fonda as the president, Walter Matthau as the political scientist based on Herman Kahn, Ed Binns as a pilot, Dan O'Herlihy as the peace-seeking general, Fritz Weaver as the unbalanced Colonel, Larry Hagman as the interpreter for the president, and Dom DeLuise, Dana Elcar and Sorrell Booke in minor roles.
There are some blatant continuity problems caused by the total lack of support given by the military - no help with sets, stock footage, or any technical advice. There was even a disclaimer added to the end of the movie at the request of the studio.
Directed by Sidney Lumet who also directed "12 Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Serpico", "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Network".
This film is inevitably compared to Stanley Kubrick's humorous treatment of the same theme in "Dr. Strangelove", also a 5-star movie. Apart from both being filmed in black-and-white and involving nuclear war with the Rooskie's, they are like night and day.
A director's commentary, a short "making of" featurette, some text-based minor goodies, and optional subtitles round out this DVD.
"The dream. The dream. The matador. The matador. The matador. Me!"
Movie Review: Don't Miss the Litigation!
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie earns five stars on its merits. Our technology lets us down, and we end up having to create a hideous human solution to allow the continued existence of the race. Hey, so far no one has likened the sacrifice of New York City to our current situation in New Orleans (September 2005)...
Anyway, what no one's mentioned so far is the well-known litigation. Some of the commentary here on the DVD addresses this.
Didn't it strike you as funny that this movie and Dr. Strangelove had similar plot lines? That's because they were both based on the same story, "Red Alert." This movie was a commercial flop, where Dr. Strangelove was a big commercial success.
The makers of "Dr. Strangelove" sued this movie Their suit asserted that this film risked wrecking their chances for audience acceptance and commercial success, and that it was "intentional" in a legal sense.
They lost.
Why does this matter to us? It's really important: our First Amendment intends to encourage the protection of creativity and intellectual property, but it does not intend to stifle independent thought. Since the sale of "Red Alert" to both parties was OK (it was not "exclusive"), either buyer could do whatever it wanted with it. So, if one movie makes the other one look ridiculous, that's as American as apple pie.
Movie fans benefit from this. And, interestingly enough, "Fail Safe's" reputation has only advanced over the years, as viewers (and I'm one of 'em) take the film on its own merits, not just as the setup line for Stangelove's macabre joke.
On its own merits, this is well-written, well-acted film. Sidney Lumet shows his stuff as a great director of thoughtful films, and the viewer is forced to think about nuclear capability in a very personal way.
Movie Review: Technology exceeds our grasp
Summary: 5 Stars
We are at the height of the cold war. We use assured mutual destruction to keep the commies at bay. The main defense is the use of strategic bombers to deliver nuclear weapons. In the event of a perceived thereat we send the bombers to points called Fail-Safe. From there if the thereat is determined to be real the president gives the go signal in a coded message. At a further point there is no recall.
What if the recall signal was jammed?
We are now faced with many questions that move from the theoretical.
Is it a trick?
Will the Ruskies believe it is an accident?
Should we take the first strike initiative?
Is mutual destruction assured?
In today's world it is easy and common place to imagine some artificial intelligence that we have ceded authority to taking over for malevolent or even levolent purposes. We have every type of movie from "2001" (1968) with the HAL 9000 to "The Forbin project" (1970) with Colossus.
This film however is a lot spookier because it is played out with what looks like could be a real scenario. It also looks like it could have been a play as the action is mostly dialog that takes place in two rooms and the interior of a strategic bomber. It has a claustrophobic feel with the black and white with odd placed lighting.
There are many fine actors in this film. One surprisingly strong performance was by Larry Hagman as Buck the interpreter for the President. The survival of the world hinged on his facial expressions as he had to interpret not just the words but the attitude of the Soviet Premier.
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Special Edition)
Movie Review: The most frightening movie ever made.
Summary: 5 Stars
Forget all the "Saw" ahd "Hostel" movies. Forget "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," and "Night of the Living Dead." For my money, there is no scene in any movie more suspenseful or terrifying than that of Henry Fonda, playing the President of the United States, on the phone to the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow, waiting for the high-pitched squeal that will terminate their conversation forever. The squeal will be the sound of the ambassador's telephone melting.
Sidney Lumet's "Fail-Safe," based on the Cold War bestseller by Burdick and Wheeler, may be black-and-white and incredibly low-tech, but it has lost none of its power to make audiences jump out of their skins after nearly five decades. This tautly paced film presents an all-too-believable doomsday scenario--how technical and human errors bring about an all-out nuclear war--and it is all the more frightening for its matter-of-fact presentation. Lumet demonstrates, for all time, that what a movie DOESN'T show can create far greater dread and horror than what it does. The presence of well-known actors--Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, even Dom DeLuise and Sorrell "Boss Hogg" Booke--does not detract from the suspense one iota. If anything, their presence intensifies the terror--if it can happen to them, it can happen to us.
It's too bad "Dr. Strangelove," that greatest of black comedies, was released just before "Fail-Safe," thus ensuring the box-office failure of the serious movie on an identical theme. Both movies are amazing, and they would make a great double feature. But be sure to watch "Fail-Safe" first!
Movie Review: Blast from the past!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a child of the '50s I can remember when the book came out, reading it and being terrified how the world could end at any minute. When the film was released it showed no softening of the message, but the impact was lost due to the release of Kubric's "Dr Strangelove". Somehow Peter Sellers humourous spin on things coupled with the superb final vision of Slim Pickens riding down on the bomb to the sounds of "We'll meet again" just had everyone I know crying with laughter at the stupidity of it all. Surely nobody would let this sort of thing happen, would they?
. Looking at this film again many years later and it seems to have regained it's power to depict the frighteningly easy way in which we can slip into the abyss. The superb acting of Henry Fonda and Walter Mathau bring a terse and well written script to life, with the young Larry Hagman totally believeable as the Presidential interpreter.
As we watch events unfolding in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the race of uncontrollable powers in the Third World to produce and stockpile nuclear weapons along with their delivery systems, "Fail Safes" chilling message becomes as relevant today as it did so many years ago.
Watch this film, then look at our present day political leaders. Apart from the fashions, has anything changed? The starkness of black and white as opposed to colour filmstock only serves to underline the warning that there is no middle way, we have to choose now as we had to choose then.
A superb film that every thinking person will do well to watch and keep alongside "Schindlers List", both as a warning and a lesson.
BUY IT!