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Post by snsurone on Aug 9, 2018 21:24:50 GMT
This is a brilliantly made movie that centers on an impending nuclear attack on the Soviet Union by American forces who had received a false message.
Henry Fonda played the POTUS, who desperately tried to stop the oncoming attack, only to be rebuffed by the captain of the fighter squad. He was forced to agree that if the attack on Moscow was successful, the Soviets could attack any major American city.
The scenes of Fonda on the phone with the Soviet premiere, with a young Larry Hagman as his translator, were chilling. The final scene, depicting NYC as the city targeted for Soviet bombers was heartbreaking.
This movie was brilliantly photographed in B&W, in film noir style, which added to its effectiveness.
The Cold War was still in full force when this film was made. I wonder if movie audiences then were frightened by its message.
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Post by hi224 on Aug 9, 2018 21:35:56 GMT
Its an incredibly perturbing movie and very essential as well.
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Post by mattgarth on Aug 9, 2018 21:59:12 GMT
STRANGELOVE made us laugh
FAIL-SAFE made us piss in our pants
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Post by wmcclain on Aug 9, 2018 21:59:28 GMT
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Post by OldAussie on Aug 9, 2018 22:10:06 GMT
Fantastic movie.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 9, 2018 22:46:22 GMT
I would like to put in a plug for the actor often overlooked and not mentioned when the film is discussed: Frank Overton as Gen. Bogan, the true lead role. Overton didn’t make many films but each performance of his that I have seen is a gem and all different, e.g. Eve Ardan's cowed husband in "The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs". Really underrated and criminally unknown.
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Post by mattgarth on Aug 9, 2018 22:49:48 GMT
And Overton also shined as the top cop in MOCKINGBIRD.
"I may not be much -- but Bob Ewell fell on his knife!"
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Post by them1ghtyhumph on Aug 9, 2018 23:15:29 GMT
STRANGELOVE made us laugh FAIL-SAFE made us piss in our pants Nailed it. In certain ways, they are very similar movies
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Post by neurosturgeon on Aug 10, 2018 0:05:47 GMT
STRANGELOVE made us laugh FAIL-SAFE made us piss in our pants I felt the first chill of Doomsday when I saw ON THE BEACH in 1959. I can remembering asking my mother is we were really going to die in 1964, as portrayed in the film. I was five years old. Ducn and cover drills were part of my childhood, as were DR. STRANGELOVE and FAIL-SAFE. We had the dugout in the backyard, galvanized trashcans filled with soda and the thought that life was going to be short. FAIL-SAFE scared me then and worries me now. I have always thought that cool minds would prevail, but when there isn't one of those in charge, who knows what will happen.
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Post by mattgarth on Aug 10, 2018 0:32:14 GMT
You were only five years old in 1959, Linda?
Geez, I was already receiving Social Security checks for six years then!
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Post by neurosturgeon on Aug 10, 2018 1:38:14 GMT
You were only five years old in 1959, Linda? Geez, I was already receiving Social Security checks for six years then! Yup, I think my parents took me to see THE SHAGGY DOG for my Fifth, but normally, it was expected that I would fall asleep in the back of the station wagon at the drive-in. That actually rarely happened. At about the same time, I remember the double bill of NORTH BY NORTHWEST and REAR WINDOW, being upset the Perry Mason was a bad guy. My parents didn't seem to care about taking me to movies with adult content until I started asking questions after seeing WALK ON THE WILD SIDE.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Aug 10, 2018 1:38:20 GMT
Walter Matthau was great in this. His serious roles are always overlooked (same thing with Leslie Nielsen).
That moment when they hear the phone screeching is pretty chilling.
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Post by pimpinainteasy on Aug 10, 2018 1:43:23 GMT
Fail-Safe is a film filled with cold spooky characters - bureaucrats, technocrats, army men, air-force men and the president of the USA. The film is a defense/air-force procedural with very little character development. The story was quite interesting and similar to Dr.Strangelove. Though it did not have any of the colorful and over the top characters that made Dr.Strangelove so entertaining. It is a cautionary but somewhat unrealistic film about the dangers of over-reliance on machinery and computers especially in matters of defense. Henry Fonda's President character sort of hits us on the head with this message towards the end of the film.
All the actors are cold and matter of fact. The close ups of desiccated faces are used extensively to underscore the in-humaneness of the characters. There is a very intimate scene between one of the pilots and his wife at the beginning of the film. It was quite touching. But the rest of the film was cold like a bitch. Dolly in shots are used quite frequently. It must have been a tough film to edit. The frigid sets and atmosphere are used to foreground the inhumane technological environment in which various politicians and bureaucrats make decisions that would affect us all. It also shows what crazy people rule us. And the extent to which they would go to keep things going.
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Post by london777 on Aug 10, 2018 2:10:19 GMT
In certain ways, they are very similar movies Hardly surprising. They were both based on the same novel, "Red Alert" by Welsh author Peter George, though with adapters and screen-writers, modifying his story before it reached the screen in both cases. He only received a pittance in royalties. Whether that was a factor in his suicide two years later I do not know.
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Post by london777 on Aug 10, 2018 2:16:25 GMT
You were only five years old in 1959, Linda? Geez, I was already receiving Social Security checks for six years then! So you started receiving Social Security in 1953? At age 65? That would make you 130 years old now. You surprise me. I thought you were somewhat older than that.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Aug 10, 2018 2:17:35 GMT
I made a versus thread on the old (NOW DELETED) IMDb board.
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Post by them1ghtyhumph on Aug 10, 2018 3:14:41 GMT
In certain ways, they are very similar movies Hardly surprising. They were both based on the same novel, "Red Alert" by Welsh author Peter George, though with adapters and screen-writers, modifying his story before it reached the screen in both cases. He only received a pittance in royalties. Whether that was a factor in his suicide two years later I do not know. I think you should look into the reasons for his suicide.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 10, 2018 3:20:12 GMT
Did everyone recognize Dom DeLuise in his screen debut? A small but very serious part for the comic actor.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 10, 2018 3:24:30 GMT
Hardly surprising. They were both based on the same novel, "Red Alert" by Welsh author Peter George, though with adapters and screen-writers, modifying his story before it reached the screen in both cases. He only received a pittance in royalties. Whether that was a factor in his suicide two years later I do not know. I think you should look into the reasons for his suicide. Each was based on a different novel. The authors of “Fail-Safe” – Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler – had to make an out-of-court settlement to British author Peter George whose novel “Red Alert” had come out 4 years earlier and had basically the same plot: accidental American nuclear attack on Russia (a mad General in “Alert”, mechanical failure in “Fail-Safe”), communications between the President and Premier, U.S. helping Russia shoot down their own planes, and the offer to “trade cities” to prevent all-out nuclear war. The lawsuit effected the production of the movies. The suit was filed when Stanley Kubrick was filming “Strangelove” with Peter George as co-writer of the screenplay. They panicked when they heard that “Fail-Safe” was also in production and at the same studio (F-S was a Columbia production, DS was an independent production, dist. by Columbia, to be precise), so made the move to sue to prevent the release of F-S. Part of the settlement was that “Strangelove” would be released first. “Fail-Safe” reached theaters about 10 months later. I’m not sure if the source novel by Burdick and Wheeler is being read much any more. I read it in H.S. and thought it had too much filler material like the long chapters relating the biographies of Buck the translator (played by Larry Hagman in the film), Groeteschele (Walter Matthau) and General Black (Dan O'Herlihy). Director Sidney Lumet and his writers wisely jettisoned all that and filmed in a tight noir style.
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Post by them1ghtyhumph on Aug 10, 2018 3:27:27 GMT
Did everyone recognize Dom DeLuise in his screen debut? A small but very serious part for the comic actor. Me. Oh yes. Nice to see Dom, my paisan, in a serious movie. Italian-Americans, watch 'Fatso'.
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