Fail-safe (Special Edition)

Buy This Item Fail-safe (Special Edition) by Sony Pictures  Available from Amazon  $18.99  on 11-14-2008     It's <I>Dr. Strangelove</I>, but without the laughs. <I>Fail Safe</I>, made within a year of <I>Strangelove</I> and at the height of cold war atomic anxiety, posits a similar nightmare scenario. A U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered toward Moscow, ready to drop its load. The U.S. president (Henry Fonda) and various military and congressional leaders must then scramble to deal with the disaster. The built-in suspense is well maintained by director Sidney Lumet, working from a script by former blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein. The solemn, serious approach doesn't begin to touch the brilliance of <I>Strangelove</I>'s inspired take on the nuclear nightmare, but <I>Fail Safe</I> is absorbing and well acted (a memorable role for Walter Matthau, for instance). The movie enters unexpected territory in its final minutes; conditioned for feel-good endings, viewers are still genuinely shocked by the plot turns in the final reels. The climax comes as a sobering slap in the face, intriguingly staged by Lumet. Now that the cold war has passed on into history, <I>Fail Safe</I> stands as--thank goodness--an interesting period piece. <I>--Robert Horton</I> Reader Reviews A "cold war' chiller that still maintains one's attention today after 44 years.While a brilliant, but truly eerie professor (Matthau) is holding center stage at a symposium, pontificating on the number of "acceptable losses" in a nuclear war, a computer malfunction sends an American bomber streaking towards Moscow. As scientists scurry to contact the jet,Fonda, doing a superb job as American President,effectively uses the "hot line",trying to buy time and to allay the fears of the Soviets. The plane is finally contacted, but the pilot has been specifically trained to disregard any orders from anyone once he has flown past his fail-safe point.Fonda then relays an impromptu plan to the Soviets to avoid nuclear warfare. Stay tuned! I would assume that all age groups, once seated, will still find this film downright scary and absorbing.

Fail-safe (Special Edition) Available from Amazon Price: $18.99 Updated on 11-14-2008.

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