Like a severe and utterly serious version of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satirical dark comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, you would think that Fail Safe would have been the original release in theatres that was then later spoofed, yet that is not the case. Released approximately six months later in the same year, as you might imagine, it led to very poor returns at the box office – dare I say it (as the film deals with this subject matter). . . it was a bomb!
Despite that, over time, it has become a bonafide classic. Based upon Eugene Burdick’s 1962 novel of the same name and directed by Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon), he introduces us to our main players by way of little vignettes. There’s General Black (Dan O’Herlihy), an even keeled, rational man haunted by a recurring nightmare of an unknown matador slaying a bull; political scientist Dr. Groeteschele (Walter Matthau), a raging anti-Communist University professor who advises the government on possible Cold War outcomes; the President (Henry Fonda – who also worked with Lumet on his first feature film 12 Angry Men), who will have to make some of the most difficult decisions of his life with the help of his Russian translator Buck (Larry Hagman – the tv series Dallas); Colonel Grady (Edward Binns), the commander of a nuclear bomber group on call for wartime emergencies; and General Bogan (Frank Overton) and Colonel Cascio (Fritz Weaver), two Pentagon based military men, the former witnessing the latter’s messy life with his alcoholic parents upon picking him up at home for the tense day to follow.
With ever more complex machinery deployed to protect the nation in case of a Cold War attack, this is the day that something goes wrong. . . as the advanced computer detection system sends out an erroneous nuclear bomb procedure after a fuse blows in the Pentagon. Unable to contact bomber Group 6 led by Colonel Grady due to superior jamming methods used by the Soviets, life altering decisions must quickly be made.
Of course, each and every person will have their own opinions on the matter. Basically set in a few key locations, General Black debates a rather reserved conservative perspective versus war hungry Dr. Groeteschele as others listen in the Air Command Room, while at the same time, General Bogan attempts to steady the nerves of his men in the Pentagon War Room as his second in command, Colonel Cascio, seems to have his sanity slowly slipping away due to the stress of the day – arguing it is all an outrageous Soviet ploy. As Grady steers his men over the Arctic into Russian territory to annihilate Moscow, the President, along with his translator, must attempt to filter all of the differing opinions while negotiating with his Communist counterpart – all while safely working in the White House underground bunker.
Released at a time of ever growing fear of nuclear war, Fail Safe easily falls within this late 1950s and into the 1960s grouping of feature films echoing the nervous nuclear thoughts of the world. Ranging from horror tinged science fiction (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Planet of the Apes) and comedy (Dr. Strangelove), to film noir (Kiss Me Deadly) and that of the more serious kind (On the Beach), this picture most definitely falls within the final grouping.
And a warning it was. Bluntly capturing the speedy escalation of defensive armament and how that in itself could lead to a cataclysmic disaster, the relevancy of this doomsday scenario has not dulled with age, as its tech talk relates more aptly now than it even did at the time. One of the fears in the narrative revolves around the ever growing ability of technology without human control:
Bogan: Mr. Knapp here knows as much about electronic gear as anyone. He’d like to say something.
Knapp: The more complex an electronic system gets, the more accident prone it is. Sooner or later it breaks down.
Swenson: What breaks down?
Knapp: A transistor blows… a condenser burns out… sometimes they just get tired – like people.
Groeteschele: Mr. Knapp overlooks one factor, the machines are supervised by humans. Even if the machine fails a human can always correct the mistake.
Knapp: I wish you were right. The fact is, the machines work so fast… they are so intricate… the mistakes they make are so subtle… that very often a human being just can’t know whether a machine is lying or telling the truth.
With the power of twenty-first century weaponry, the further advancement of technology such as cell phones and artificial intelligence, and scarily this list could keep going on for quite some time, this is a stark reminder circa 1964 that we too should be considering the ever encroaching power that technology has in and around our lives.
A quality drama that ratchets up the tension the further it moves towards a possible day of reckoning, Fail Safe combines its realistic Cold War storyline (matched with striking closeups and strictly framed claustrophobic visuals of its settings) with some European New Wave style. . . a prime example of Lumet expanding his cinematic panache. Lastly, keep an eye out for Dom DeLuise in his first film role (funnily enough, a serious part). . . he can be found in the Pentagon. So, countdown your time before seeing this Cold War gem, it’s a fail-safe choice.