Fail-Safe (1964)
Country: US
Technical: bw 111m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Dan O'Herlihy, Edward Binns
Synopsis:
When established safeguards in national security fail due to a mechanical failure at the bombers' fail-safe points, the President must make a terrible sacrifice in order to avert all-out nuclear war with Russia.
Review:
Outstanding companion piece to Kubrick's very similar, but more blackly comic account, Lumet's terrifyingly matter-of-fact apocalypse strikes a hysterical note only once or twice but is otherwise a persuasively sober argument for nuclear disarmament. The opening establishes its three or four locations by revisiting each at an identical point in chronological time, only to abandon this suspense device and divert our attention to the tracking boards in the war room. As the miles fall away and the safeguards with them, Fonda's President is a paragon of composure betrayed only by the beads of sweat picked out by the crystalline monochrome cinematography of Gerald Hirschfeld. The documentary edge lent by the shooting style is given added heft by the supernatural aura of the opening dream sequence and its ultimate fulfilment.
Country: US
Technical: bw 111m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Dan O'Herlihy, Edward Binns
Synopsis:
When established safeguards in national security fail due to a mechanical failure at the bombers' fail-safe points, the President must make a terrible sacrifice in order to avert all-out nuclear war with Russia.
Review:
Outstanding companion piece to Kubrick's very similar, but more blackly comic account, Lumet's terrifyingly matter-of-fact apocalypse strikes a hysterical note only once or twice but is otherwise a persuasively sober argument for nuclear disarmament. The opening establishes its three or four locations by revisiting each at an identical point in chronological time, only to abandon this suspense device and divert our attention to the tracking boards in the war room. As the miles fall away and the safeguards with them, Fonda's President is a paragon of composure betrayed only by the beads of sweat picked out by the crystalline monochrome cinematography of Gerald Hirschfeld. The documentary edge lent by the shooting style is given added heft by the supernatural aura of the opening dream sequence and its ultimate fulfilment.
Country: US
Technical: bw 111m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Dan O'Herlihy, Edward Binns
Synopsis:
When established safeguards in national security fail due to a mechanical failure at the bombers' fail-safe points, the President must make a terrible sacrifice in order to avert all-out nuclear war with Russia.
Review:
Outstanding companion piece to Kubrick's very similar, but more blackly comic account, Lumet's terrifyingly matter-of-fact apocalypse strikes a hysterical note only once or twice but is otherwise a persuasively sober argument for nuclear disarmament. The opening establishes its three or four locations by revisiting each at an identical point in chronological time, only to abandon this suspense device and divert our attention to the tracking boards in the war room. As the miles fall away and the safeguards with them, Fonda's President is a paragon of composure betrayed only by the beads of sweat picked out by the crystalline monochrome cinematography of Gerald Hirschfeld. The documentary edge lent by the shooting style is given added heft by the supernatural aura of the opening dream sequence and its ultimate fulfilment.