Fail Safe: It will have you sitting on the brink of eternity!
Duration: 1 hour 52 minutes (112 minutes) Genre : Drama, Thriller, War
Year of Release : 1964 Production Company : Columbia Pictures
Director : Sidney Lumet
Based on the novel ‘Fail-Safe’ by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, this is an acclaimed anti-war drama. Besides its year of release, this Sidney Lumet’s movie is a thematically similar one to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece ‘Dr. Strangelove.’ Released at the height of American-Russian Cold war, this movie aptly captures the prevailing tension of that volatile period.
The story deals with a war-like situation, created by the misguided machines and the American President must make a crucial decision to avoid war. Aircrafts loaded with nuclear bombs receives an order to nuke Moscow from the Pentagon headquarters – a technical flaw. Unknowing this fact, Group Six, consisting of six Vindicator Supersonic Bombers advance past their fail-safe point on the way to attack Moscow. Options are limited for the Americans. Either, they have to declare war with Russia or shoot down their own bomb-carrying aircrafts. As the bombers approach Russia, the President of America (Henry Fonda), aided by his translator, starts the negotiation with the Russian President. Russians join hands with Americans and all the bombers are shot down except one, triggering the catastrophic situation. But, will they ever realize that the outgrowing machine power over human beings, which caused this ‘out of control’ situation?
Among its lead stars, Walter Matthau shines with his well-etched character of a war-mongering social scientist. Though highly fictitious, the situations created in this movie cannot be easily ignored. ‘Fail Safe’ means take account of the ways things can go wrong—fail—and ensure that the machine, process, etc. will not make things worse.
Arguments placed for and against war in the war room and the American President’s conversation with his translator – the scenes are outstanding.
Taking us to the theater of war, the renowned filmmaker Sidney Lumet unfolds its scary side – a gripping anti-war drama.
By Srini