Edition 2024
112'
-
1964
-
Drama, Thriller
-
Dialogue:
Russian, English
Although it pretty much features the same doomsday scenario as Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (only now with straight faces and serious speeches), Fail Safe - a tense account of accidental nuclear warfare - never received the same praise. Henry Fonda plays the US president who makes the ultimate sacrifice when his fumbling military top sends nukes towards Moscow.
In Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick gave his scathingly humorous vision of the unthinkable - a fatal ‘accident’ with a nuclear weapon. Sidney Lumet, around the same time, brought a deadly serious and understated view of what might happen should a technical/mechanical error cause a nuclear war. US ‘Vindicator’ bombing planes approach the ‘end point’ (Fail-Safe) on a certain day when they are informed of their possible target. Since, due to a communication breakdown, no one calls them back, they advance towards Moscow, as the logbook dictates. Henry Fonda is the powerless (and nameless in the film) president who, together with his crisis team, searches for solutions to avert the fatal US-Russian nuclear game. The way out proposed by the president to avoid an all-out nuclear war is also what makes this rarely screened film so controversial.
Image gallery
Credits
Directors
Sidney Lumet
Cast
Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver
Scenario
Walter Bernstein
Director of Photography
Gerald Hirschfeld
Editors
Ralph Rosenblum
Producers
Max E. Youngstein
Production studios
Columbia Pictures
More info
Dialogue
Russian, English
Countries of production
United States of America
Screenplay based on
"Fail-Safe" (Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler)
Year
1964
Filmography
Sidney Lumet
Mama (1949), Danger (1950), Crime Photographer (1951), You Are There (1953), The Best of Broadway (1954), The Elgin Hour (1954), The Alcoa Hour (1955), Star Stage (1955), Frontier (1955), Goodyear Television Playhouse (1955), Studio One (1957), Producers' Showcase (1957), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Seven Lively Arts (1957), The DuPont Show of the Month (1957), The Challenge (1955), Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (1958), Stage Struck (1958), All the King's Men (1958), The Iceman Cometh (1960), John Brown's Raid (1960), Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, and Joanne Woodward in The Fugitive Kind (1960), Playhouse 90 (1960), The Deadly Affair (1967), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), The Sea Gull (1968), The Appointment (1969), King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1969), Child's Play (1972), Serpico (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Equus (1977), The Wiz (1978), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), Prince of the City (1981), Deathtrap (1982), The Verdict (1982), Daniel (1983), Garbo Talks (1984), Power (1986), The Morning After (1986), Running on Empty (1988), Family Business (1989), Q & A (1990), A Stranger Among Us (1992), Guilty as Sin (1993), Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), Critical Care (1997), Gloria (1999), 100 Centre Street (2001), Strip Search (2004), Rachel, quand du seigneur (2004), Find Me Guilty (2006), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007).
