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Posits that no matter the competency of the people in charge - the system in place can and will falter, and humans will succumb to their own creation. A tense, tightly-knotted procedural.
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I hadn't seen this film since watching it with my father as a kid. It was one of his favorites, along with films like Paths of Glory and The Pawnbroker, and he always liked to talk about the frightening plausibility of such a scenario. I loved it at the time, but I would grow up to assume that Fail Safe was cursed to be the square sibling to the sharper, more audacious Dr. Strangelove, which came out the same year…
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I hadn’t seen Fail Safe in decades, and didn’t remember much of it other than Henry Fonda and the brilliant final scene. It was only in the last year that I came to realize it was Sidney Lumet. Over the years I’ve loved many Lumet films, including Network, Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men, The Verdict, and Death Trap without realizing they were his. I think this may be because his trademark is subtle. It isn’t stylistic, it’s all about…
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Quite possibly the most tense film I’ve ever seen? Like 12 Angry men, a marvel of editing as much as anything else. Easily the bleakest ending of anything I’ve seen this year.
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"We're setting up a war machine that acts faster than the ability of men to control it."
Adapted by blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein from the 1962 best-selling novel by political scientists Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe recounts an intense period of agonized troubleshooting as members of top U.S. brass attempt to a) recall or destroy a group of bombers led by Colonel Grady (Edward Binns) that has been inadvertently instructed to attack Moscow with nuclear weapons…
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One of the most terrifying movies I’ve ever seen. An honest to god horror movie. Pardon the language, but Jesus Fucking Christ.
Of course, I have zero authority to speak on this film’s level of accuracy or realism regarding military protocol, safe guards, or the chilling domino effect that unfolds. I don’t know if what happens here could’ve actually happened. What I do know is that there are around 12,000+ nuclear warheads in the world today, about 90% owned by…
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Action! - Lumet/Pollack: The Fight of the Century
When I initially watched this movie, I didn't feel very moved by it, which was a shame given how well it's been received. And, as you can see, I was finally able to appreciate this film more. Feeling the strain as these people, propelled by an evil spirit of revenge, placed everyone's life in peril and are threatening to start the third world war. Those last moments with Grady had me on…
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Really loved this. Cold War thriller that imagines a scenario where the fail safe mechanisms of nuclear warfare breakdown and the worst case scenarios play out and no one has any power to stop it. It’s a tense thriller where the tension has been ramped up by its minimalist production and score. Though a product of its time, it’s hard not to see how fail safe could speak into the present, particularly the use of artificial intelligence. The prescient fear…
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a strangely relevant movie given the rise of AI.
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I love stripped-down, dialogue-driven and close-quarter dramas like this, where in the hands of a true master - such as Lumet - the uncinematic becomes cinematic. Telephone exchanges becomes the most tense scenes you'll see. The stark b&w cinematography, claustrophobic close-ups, the use of silence - all magnificent. It stars two of my favorite actors in Fonda and Matthau and my word do they act the shit out of this one. The suspense and emotions builds and builds and the scenario keeps getting more terrifying. Final minutes are haunting beyond words. True shame that the release of Dr. Strangelove completely overshadowed this, they're both magnificent.
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Failsafe came out the same year as Dr strangelove and is similar but in its story and acting this film goes more for a serious angle in iys plot about the threat of nuclear war. The film takes place mostly in about three rooms with characters talking over the phone but the acting, direction and lighting all add an urgency, atmosphere and claustrophobic to the film making for a scary tense experience. The theme as well of trying to stop something that can't be stopped makes for a unnerving time.
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Among Sidney Lumet's many fantastic films, which cover an array of genres, many refer back to his directorial debut 12 Angry Men. We get a film that utilizes its relatively small space and lets all these talented performers go to their full potential while their actions and dialogue help build up the suspense, anxiety, and tension, making the film a masterclass in acting.
Although this film isn't as brilliant as his first, you can see the director flexing many of…
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