Fail Safe [VHS] [1963]: Stephen Frears, Noah Wyl, Richard Dreyfuss: Amazon.co.uk: Video

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Synopsis

Following closely on the heels of Stanley Kubrik's DR. STRANGELOVE (all too closely for Kubrick and company, who quickly filed a lawsuit alleging plagiarism), Sidney Lumet's FAIL-SAFE employs a similarly stylized and heightened dramatic structure in its nerve-crushing moral tale. Taking place over the course of a single day, the film follows government and army officials in Nebraska, New York City, and Washington, D.C., as they go about their day supervising, examining, and speculating on the fragile state of affairs engendered by the tense nuclear standoff between the U.S. and Russia. When an off-course commercial airplane triggers the Pentagon's complex 'fail-safe' maneuver, leaving an arsenal of nuclear-bomb-carrying jet fighters at the ready, a mechanical error puts the entire world in danger of destruction. Riveting performances from a rich cast are pushed even further by Lumet's stark and ominous direction. Walter Matthau gives an uncharacteristic turn as a cold and contemptuous political scientist unswerving in his convictions that the U.S. must stand strong against the communist menace. Henry Fonda plays the American president who must navigate the complex and urgent political trauma and prevent total destruction, even at an unthinkable price.

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14 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent remake of a classic, 4 Sep 2001

By	Mushroom "mushrom" (Texas, Qatar) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fail Safe [DVD] [2000] (DVD)

I so loved this movie, I had to go to England to buy it.

Amazingly, this movie is NOT AVAILABLE in the United States. This is hard to believe, considering the fact that it was made and broadcast live over here.

The casting of this remake is exceptional. Richard Dreyfuss takes on the role of the President, the role held by Henry Fonda in the original. If this was a conventional "flim" movie, I am sure he would have recieved an Oscar for his performance. The sheer power is incredible. During one sequence, you can see the pulsing of the veins on his forehead, showing the sheer tension he is protraying. And the sweat he wipes off of his brow is very real, not makeup as is normal for movies.

Brian Dennehy as the General is a perfect choice, showing both the paranoia of career officers, and at the same time doing what he feels he must do to protect his Nation. He even tried hard to prove the attack is a mistake, and to help the U.S.S.R. to bring down the errant bombers.

This is a very powerful remake of a classic. The fact that it was shot Live and in Black & White adds to the impact. There are even a few mistakes in it ("Creme de le crop" instead of "creme de le creme" OR "Cream of the crop" is the biggest example). But they are overall very minor, and only help to show that it was performed LIVE, with all of the actors walking that ultimate of high-wires.

I hope that someday this movie will be available in the US, so more of us over here can enjoy it again and again. But until then, my copy holds a prominant role in my DVD collection.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chilling and moving drama of what might have been., 6 Nov 2003

By	"gazesalso" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fail Safe [DVD] [2000] (DVD)

...And what may even yet come to be. The protagonists may have changed in this post cold-war era, but the scenario remains even more plausible now than before, given the number of nations now able to wield Nuclear Weapons.

The film is set at the height of the cold war, at a time when our dependence on computers was just beginning. A hardware failure automatically sends out an order for a squadron of bombers, headed by Clooney, to nuke Moscow. An order that cannot be rescinded. What ensues is a harrowing drama as military and leaders on both sides come to terms with what is unfolding and their attempts to contain the escallation.

This was an impulse buy, and revealed itself to be one of the finest films I've ever seen. Really. The fact that it was broadcast and recorded live adds hugely to the realism and tension. The acting is superb, as is the script. The mood generated by the monochrome filming is entirely appropriate.

If you only buy one DVD this year, buy this one. It's really that good.

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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nuclear warfare is a war for suicide bombers., 26 Feb 2006

By	Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fail Safe [DVD] [2000] (DVD)

Stephen Frears takes us deep into the past to address a problem we live today with extreme intensity : the possibility of a nuclear war. He goes back to the Cold War to envisage the situation of such a nuclear conflict between two countries who have the same technological and technical possibilities : the capability to destroy a whole city with two bombs, the capability to get the bombs there no matter what and the protocole for the pilots never to come back once the order is given. This kamikaze situation created by our own protocoles is absurd and demonstrated as such : if a technical mistake causes this situation there is absolutely no way to stop it, what’s more to reverse it. It also raises the question of why and how we – the civilized West – have invented such protocoles that transform our pilots into suicide-bombers, and also how and why human beings can accept such protocoles that transform them into non-thinking machines. The film shows that there is absolutely no escape from nuclear destruction when it is started. It also shows that some supposedly technical or learned minds are using the logic of a traditional war within the frame of nucelar warfare, which is absurd because there cannot be any victor in such a war. The film very clearly shows that the point is to avoid the full confrontation and that this can only be achieved by accepting as much damage on the side responsible for the alert as this side will have caused on the other side. New York to pay off Moscow. This film is also interesting to show how perverse such power, the power to start such a war, is : it transforms human beings into monsters that will remain human if they can avoid the full destruction of the planet by accepting a limited destruction of a few cities. What an achievement indeed. From human being to human monster, from peace and love to let's kill just enough people to guarantee that all will not be killed. War seen as a blood sucker sucking just the right amount of blood for you not to die of apoplexy. Absurd and yet so human indeed : the human race is the only animal race that has invented and uses the logic of absurdity.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne