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…
Fail-Safe is about how man can become so good at making automatons, at making mechanisms that are fool-proof in their goals and will execute no matter what, that we will inevitably destroy ourselves because of it. It's a story about a nuclear mutually assured destruction that only happens because bureaucracy is so air-tight that we can't stop it once it's set in motion.
It starts with the US president and his advisers slowly become aware that a technical malfunction has…
Better than Strangelove
“You make death an entertainment. Something that can be played in a living room.”
frightening. deeply frightening
"To preserve what?"
Better than The Last Boy Scout
Part two of my Lumetathon
A deeply disturbing and sobering snapshot of the horrors of nuclear warfare and what could’ve been if only a few things had gone wrong during the high tensions of the Cold War. Sidney Lumet crafts a delicate story hinging on many ethical dilemmas relating to warfare and especially attacks on innocent civilians. It’s a provocative movie and one that packs quite a gut punch by the end as well.
Henry Fonda, Dan O’Herlihy, and Walter Matthau lead the cast and…
I probably wouldn’t put him in, say, my top 10 directors if I ever made that list (though maybe he’d be close, I don’t know), but is there a more consistently reliable director than Sidney Lumet? I feel like if you’re in need of a sure thing film, something to watch that you pretty much are assured will be good, he’s gotta be up there as one of the top guys. Fail Safe is a film that I recall starting…
even more absurd than dr. strangelove in its own way, but just as bleak. pretty nice to not be as close to total nuclear destruction as we were in the '60s and '80s, but also makes one yearn for a time when there was a significant enough opposing power to the u.s. empire's hegemony. also never realized how much henry fonda could sound like david lynch it was honestly kind of distracting
Very frustrating morning, but had a spark of joy recognizing the actor who played the hippie hating doughy guy from one of my fav MST3Ks, San Francisco International (“And then he told me what I could do…” “Mostly character roles.”)
In light of current events, a general telling Holocaust survivor Walter Matthau (who advocates taking advantage of the situation to strike the Russians) that he’s learned from the Nazis “all to well” is the most striking scene.
Excuse me while I shit myself.
This film is terrifying. Utterly terrifying. 54 years later and the situation depicted is probably more relevant and feasible than it was at the time, especially now we rely even more on technology, and there's no Henry Fonda in the White House.
Fail-Safe does an excellent job at balancing the looming apocalypse with the smaller human elements; you never forget that there are people at the centre of all of these decisions, people whose lives are on the line. Equally…