Fail Safe (1964) ***1/2
Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe (1964) is a very good paranoiac thriller about an accidental nuclear crisis that features a fantastic cast filmed in striking black & white cinematography. Henry Fonda had previously played a president in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)—well, almost, as the events of that film take place previous to Lincoln being president. Director Lumet's decision to leave the film scoreless was a bold one, choosing instead to let the camerawork, the editing and, sometimes, the silence provide the tension.
While Stanley Kubrick was filming Dr. Strangelove (1964) he learned that Fail Safe was also in production. Due to the fact that the 1962 novel which Lumet's film is based on bears so many similarities to Red Alert, the 1958 novel which Kubrick's film is based on, the director and the book's author, Peter George, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit (which was settled out of court). As a result, Kubrick's film was released first, to great acclaim, and Lumet's film, while receiving excellent reviews, performed poorly at the box office. Strangelove is, admittedly, the superior of the two films, but it's a shame that Fail Safe suffered because though it was released later the same year, Kubrick's film is clearly played for laughs, while Lumet's is an ultra serious drama.
I've seen Fail Safe twice now. I enjoy the film and it is expertly made, but it also plays a bit like a TV movie or a stage play—it doesn't always work for me and I don't find it that exciting. A lot of the film plays with a cold precision, aside from a few melodramatic scenes, but it can drag at times. It's a film that, more than anything, I admire, rather than love, made by one of my Top 20 Directors (many of whose films I still have yet to see).
You can find my Sidney Lumet Feature Films Ranked list here.
While Stanley Kubrick was filming Dr. Strangelove (1964) he learned that Fail Safe was also in production. Due to the fact that the 1962 novel which Lumet's film is based on bears so many similarities to Red Alert, the 1958 novel which Kubrick's film is based on, the director and the book's author, Peter George, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit (which was settled out of court). As a result, Kubrick's film was released first, to great acclaim, and Lumet's film, while receiving excellent reviews, performed poorly at the box office. Strangelove is, admittedly, the superior of the two films, but it's a shame that Fail Safe suffered because though it was released later the same year, Kubrick's film is clearly played for laughs, while Lumet's is an ultra serious drama.
I've seen Fail Safe twice now. I enjoy the film and it is expertly made, but it also plays a bit like a TV movie or a stage play—it doesn't always work for me and I don't find it that exciting. A lot of the film plays with a cold precision, aside from a few melodramatic scenes, but it can drag at times. It's a film that, more than anything, I admire, rather than love, made by one of my Top 20 Directors (many of whose films I still have yet to see).
You can find my Sidney Lumet Feature Films Ranked list here.
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