Review: _Fail-Safe_ is one of those films that scares you silly

Tweet

Every now and then a film comes along that is horrifying, not because of any sort of monster or critter lurking in the shadows, but rather that the possibility of it happening is all too real. Such is the case with the 1960's film, _Fail-Safe._ Set in the present day -- that is, 1964 -- the premise of the film is simple enough. A man in New York City is checking in on his family in the early hours of the morning, tucking his children in, having a conversation with his sleepy wife, and then he is off to his job -- that of an Air Force piloting a bomber. At the same time, a swank party is winding up at dawn, with a political advisor holding forth to his audience of socialites and congressmen. And the third is a man reporting for duty at a Strategic Air Command base outside of Omaha, Nebraska to fly a B-52 loaded with nuclear weapons. Each of these three people's lives will intersect on the same day, and we follow them along as the United States continues in what would be known as the Cold War. A cat and mouse game of nerves, the US and the Soviet Union -- the Russians, if you will -- have been engaging in a not-quite-war for decades, ever since the use of nuclear weapons was begun. One strategy was to fly fully-loaded bombers with nuclear weapons on the ready in the air, hopefully to deter any sort of preemptive strike by promising that there would be retribution. All it takes is a single word by the president. But _Fail-Safe_ takes a slightly different view -- what if a command was scrambled, and the order to go past the point of no return -- fail-safe -- was given? It's a terrifying vision, and with just words and cramped rooms, the tension in this one is raised to the very limit. For those of us who grew up in the Cold War, it showed exactly why and what would haunt our dreams, and why we were so wary of the Russians. The cameos in this one are worth noting -- quite a few young actors got a start with this one. Best of them is Larry Hagman as a young translator in Russian who is closeted with the President (Henry Fonda) frantically trying to get a message to the Russian premier that a terrible accident has happened. Walter Matthau's performance as a cold-blooded political scientist is also chilling to watch, as he sees eventual casualties as not much more than numbers and is very vocal in that we need to take that first strike. Unfortunately, there are two problems with this film, one where a general snaps and tries to take over the base, and the second was with the wife of the captain of the astray bomber screaming into the phone not to drop the weapons. Both are not much more than howl-fests, and very unconvincing. But other than those two brief moments, it's a very solid film. It does catch the mentality of the Cold War quite well, and while the machismo factor is high, it's also true that that was what was expected of men of the period as well. Sadly, this film was overlooked in the year that it was released, having to compete with Stanley Kubrick's bleak comedy, _Dr. Strangelove,_ which was pretty much the same film, but carried to the most extreme measures on the other side of filmmaking. Despite the dated feel, it's still a relevant film for today. The Soviet Union may not exist any more, and the Cold War has now become a subject for historians, but the cold fear of having the world wiped out in the matter of hours is still there. It's just that we don't know who is going to be deciding when and where that bomb will go off -- either in the hands of terrorists or a crazed dictator, it doesn't matter really, the results will be as hideous. In 2000 another version of this was made for television, in black and white, but it was not nearly as effective, and thankfully, faded quickly from view. Do I still recommend this film? Absolutely. It's an exercise in what might have been, and what could still be.