This is my latest contribution to The Big Picture, the internationally-recognised magazine and website that offers an intelligent take on cinema, focussing on how film affects our lives. This piece about Sidney Lumet’s Cold War thriller Fail Safe was written as part of The Big Picture’s Lost Classics strand, although I am including it within my list of Great Films You Need To See.
No doubt frazzled by the Cold War running ever hotter, it’s perhaps not surprising audiences in 1964 preferred their nuclear scare movies to be in the mould of the scabrously satirical Dr Strangelove rather than the grimly portentous Fail Safe.
No film before or since has played out the nightmarish endgame of Mutually Assured Destruction to quite such a chilling and methodical degree
As the cold horror of what is unfolding dawns on America’s top brass, the President (played by Henry Fonda) engages in an increasingly desperate exchange with his Russian counterpart via telephone to find a way to stop the bombers from triggering World War III before it’s too late.
The tension builds as the President (Henry Fonda) and his interpreter (Larry Hagman) talk to the Russians in Fail Safe
Director Sidney Lumet stages the film in a similar fashion to his 1957 debut 12 Angry Men. The drama plays out in several locations, each of them boiler rooms of fetid tension where the temperature is mercilessly cranked up to the point where a number of characters crack under the strain. Even Fonda’s President loses his cool as the terrible reality of what is happening sinks in.
By doing relatively little with the camera and refusing to pull away, Lumet is able to poison the atmosphere with a thickening dread; so much so that when Larry Hagman’s interpreter’s hands start to shake as he drinks a glass of water we question whether he’s acting or not.
The pressure builds in the War Room in Fail Safe
The only one who seems unphased is Walter Matthau’s coldly analytical civilian advisor Professor Groeteschele, who is seen at the start of the film at a dinner party calmly rationalising how 60 million deaths should be the highest price America is prepared to pay in a war. The ultimate utilitarian, Groeteschele sees the unfolding tragedy as a golden opportunity to wipe Russia off the map to ensure that American culture, whatever’s left of it, survives. Ironically, his uber-hawkish outlook shocks even the most senior military brass.
The film explores the duality we feel towards technology through the banks of dials, buttons and flashing lights at Strategic Air Command headquarters and the imposing screen displaying the whereabouts of military assets and targets across the world.
The detestable Professor Groeteschele (Walter Matthau) coldly rationalises nuclear war in Fail Safe
Implicit trust has been placed in the instruments, which General Bogan (Frank Overton) confidently states are so good “they can tell the difference between a whale breaking wind and a sub blowing its tanks”. However, it’s this same technology that betrays us by sending the ‘go code’ to the bombers. We are all of us Dr Frankensteins, Fail Safe implies, courting our own destruction through our insatiable hunger for ever more sophisticated technology (a concept more colourfully explored in the Terminator franchise).
Fail Safe concludes with a disclaimer courtesy of the Department of Defense and US Air Force that safeguards and controls are in place to ensure the film’s events can never come to pass. It’s unlikely that would have made anyone watching Fail Safe back in 1964 any more comfortable in their beds.
three rows back 
You know I’m a big fan of this Lumet film. Nicely done.
Very glad to hear it my friend. Always pleased to find a fellow lover of such classics.
Sounds very good. I’ll check it out.
Good man! Hope you like it.
Nice review. I’ve never seen the entire movie, just clips, but I’m a big fan of Lumet so I need to watch this. I read An Army of Phantoms a while ago and J. Hoberman discussed a lot about Fail Safe which he compared to Dr. Strangelove.
Thank you very much. It’s only similar to Strangelove in terms of the subject matter; they have very different approaches.
Great review Mark! My good friend Kevin recommended this to me a while back when he did a guest post on Mr. Matthau. I really need to see this soon. Btw, I reddited your post, hope you get some traffic 😀
Thanks so much Ruth; much appreciated. I don’t think it’s the sort of post that will attract much traffic!
I saw the live TV version of this (with George Clooney et al) many years ago and thought it was excellent, so much so that I’ve been loathe to watch the film in case I didn’t like it as much. Sounds like such worry isn’t justified.
Not at all. If you enjoyed that version then you’ll love this one. Thanks for the feedback my friend.
This movie is awesome! Love Lumet during this era. Great work. Haven’t seen this since my old VHS days. Time for an upgrade!
Thanks Vic. Ha ha, my copy isn’t much better!
Just saw that Amazon has it on their instant video. May re-visit it there.
Do it mate.