Film Review: Fail Safe (1964)

If good films are to be recognised as such, they must be good, but sometimes it is even more important for their makers to get lucky. Luck was something people behind Fail Safe, 1964 political drama directed by Sidney Lumet, lacked, and, as a result, film that was supposed to powerful exploration of the most pressing issue of its time and instant classic instead got relegated to footnote nowadays known only towards more hardcore among the cinephiles.

The film is based on 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The plot deals with the Cold War, which was going on at the time and was at its peak, risking to escalate into actual armed conflict between United States and Soviet Union. The main thing that prevented so was the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction – both sides, thanks to advanced and unimaginably destructive nuclear weapons possessed ability to inflict such damage on each other that any notions of victory would have been pointless and the aftermath would mean not only the end of civilisation but humanity itself. The unimaginable, however, starts to happen one day when USAF early warning radar detect unknown object that entered American airspace. Although routine, such events trigger response in the form of Vindicators, American supersonic bombers, advancing to so-called “fail-safe” positions from which they would, if they receive adequate order, attack Soviet Union with twenty megaton hydrogen bombs. The alarm appears to be false and the bombers are ordered to return to their regular position. General Bogan (played by Frank Overton), much to his horror, learns that communication system malfunctioned and that, due to computer error, Colonel Jack Grady (played by Edward Binns), commander of one of the squadrons, misinterpreted the order and continued with his mission, believing that the war has actually started. After attempts to make him return fail, President of the United States (played by Henry Fonda) is informed about increasing possibility that the bombers would destroy Moscow and thus trigger Soviet retaliatory strike and US counter-strike, resulting in nuclear holocaust. President through his trusted translator Buck (played by Larry Hagman) contacts Soviet prime minister and tries to prevent catastrophe by offering co-operation, even if it means helping Soviets to shoot down US bombers. When everything fails and fate of Moscow seems to be sealed, President comes with the heartbreakingly drastic way to save humanity.

At first, it looked that the luck would smile on Lumet, who produced the film together with Charles H. Maguire and Max E. Youngstein. The original novel had been published during Cuban Missile Crisis, making its content as relevant to the audience as humanly possible and guaranteeing huge publicity to any future film adaption. However it turned out that the plot of Fail Safe had striking similarity with Red Alert, 1958 novel by Peter George, which had been simultaneously being adapted to screen by Stanley Kubrick. The issue led to plagiarism lawsuit which was quickly settled in a way that Fail Safe could proceed with production, but only if its released after Kubrick’s film, which ultimately became Dr. Strangelove, one of the most legendary films of its time. In order to make his film as different as possible from Lumet’s, Kubrick decided to turn into satirical dark comedy and his approach appealed to the audience, which was more eager to handle dark and disturbing subject if coated with dark humour. Fail Safe, on the other hand, played as straight and completely serious drama, resulting not only with failure at the box office, but also with inevitable comparisons with Kubrick’s work turning it into disappointment even among critics.

Sad fate of Fail Safe was hardly deserved. On its own, it is very good film that actually tries to explore issues of war and peace, runaway technology, human frailty with the latter two conspiring to trigger nuclear apocalypse by accident. Lumet took this challenge very seriously and directed the film in a manner very similar to classic television plays in which he had previously learned his craft. Almost all plot takes place in the interiors and the seriousness of the situations is underlined with the lack of music that allows actors to create tension by themselves. The cast includes some notable names, including Walter Matthau as Professor Groeteschele, Strangelovian Pentagon advisor, a civilian hawk who believes that nuclear war could be limited and actually won, unlike dovish General Black (played by Dan O’Herlihy) who actually wants to stop the madness. But it is Henry Fonda who truly shines by playing wise, peaceful and resourceful President of the United States who represents embodiment of all American ideals, at least those adopted by left-wingers and liberals like Lumet. Larry Hagman, who would later become successful in television, is effective in the role o translator.

Fail Safe is, however, far from perfect. The plot begins very slowly, with some scenes that are too confusing or look redundant. Ilsa Woolfe, socialite who actually seems sexually aroused with the talk of nuclear holocaust, appears to belong to different film, although Lumet probably felt compelled introduced eye candy character which is to be played by popular fashion model Nancy Berg. With the US military refusing to offer help, Lumet had to display aircraft with the help of stock footage that doesn’t look particularly convincing and makes Fail Safe look dated. Some of the dialogue is too preachy, and some of the plot elements are too melodramatic and too convenient. But the film nevertheless looks powerful, especially now when we know that the situations like those depicted in the film actually happened during Cold War only to be defused by number of individuals who fortunately made proper decisions. Today, when the quality of people that sit in world’s decision centres appears to be incomparably worse than sixty years ago, Fail Safe looks perhaps even more disturbing that it did when it premiered. In 2000 Steven Soderbergh directed the remake in the form of live television play.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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