As long as we have youtube Robert Osborne will always be alive in a certain way. And I agree with the guy downstream. I could watch Osborne and Baldwin discuss breakfast cereal.
I still get chills when Hagman quietly says, " Holy Mother of God. " They say that movies are a reflection of its own society. The greatest fear in the early 1960s was atomic war. I was 12 when air raid sirens were placed in our schoolyard. People were building bomb shelters in their backyards. Communists were stockpiling weapons in Cuba. And Fail Safe came to the theaters.
I saw this in the 60's as kid. It scared me. It's haunted me all this time. Top 10 movie. I was just looking at a couple scenes from it, and I decided it's really a horror film. I come here, and Osborne says the same thing! I don't think we need the Matthau character at all, as Baldwin intimates. He's there to lampoon conservatives/hawks and was probably the stepping off point for Kubrick's lampoon. Osborne mentions there's no music! Yes! I wasn't conscious of that, but that is something that makes it so haunting and claustrophobic in some way. There was a TV mini-series (movie) called "World War III" in the early 80's that nobody's heard of so no spoiler alert is needed. VERY similar mood. No music, claustrophobic. World-wide Apocalypse decided on a local scale between small units of USSR troops and American troops in Alaska who have no communication to higher authority (due to weather). Cut off, following prior orders, aware of the stakes, wondering how far to go. Great performance by Rock Hudson (!) as the US President appearing just in one room as in "Fail Safe," talking to the Russia Premier on a hot line. It ends differently.
Is amazing the contrast of Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe, yet in such close proximity. And how Strangelove makes a comedy out of total annihilation, yet Fail Safe becomes a horror in trying to be empathetic and fair. Really makes the viewer think about trust and sacrifice like no other movie!
I believe that Matthau's character was based on guys like Edward Teller and (in particular) Herman Kahn, a think-tank futurist who wrote "On Thermonuclear War"...
I was 15 when I first saw this, after growing up under the 50s Cold War and entering the turbulent 60s and 70s. I preferred it to Dr. Strangelove. It was grim, full of doom but it was realistic. This same threat exists in 2022, and people still haven’t learned the lesson: You can’t repeat the same actions and get different results.
The first 2 times I saw Fail Safe was on the same day. ; at my grammar school ,went home and it's on tv. I'm thinking am I freaking freaking Like this movie
This is a brilliant film (for me, better than Dr Strangelove) that really has you on the edge of your seat. The tension is almost claustrophobic. The only scene I didn't like was the bizarre one in the car with the woman who gets turned on by talking about nuclear war. I agree with Baldwin, I wasn't mad keen on Walter Matthau either. Everyone else is fantastic.
I don't really have a problem with Matthau's performance because overall, I think the film is a touch overdone. It's realistic, but it is the hyper-realism they did in movies at the time.
I also prefer this film more. The comedy and sexual innuendos in Dr. Strangelove weirded me out. This one really felt human and emotional to me. The characters all had clear arcs. Even the little scene between Bogan and Prokiev over the phone as Bogan looked at Prokiev's file brought me to tears.
@@acdragonrider Yes, exactly. If I remember rightly, Bogan was about to ask if he had been able to get his family out of Moscow and then thought it would be too painful if the answer was no. The films had a different emphasis. Dr Strangelove showed how ridiculous nuclear war is. Fail Safe showed how terrifying it is. One of the issues I had with Dr Strangelove (which I still think is a very, very good film) was that Kubrick pushed the performances too far - particularly George C Scott towards the end of the film. Apparently, Scott was furious that Kubrick used what he said would be over the top 'warm-up' takes in the final cut.
Wonder what Barry Goldwater thought of this film? I remember the book stated that the President's wife was in New York on this morning. I don't remember that in the film unless I just missed it.
Oh yes you missed it. Someone tosses a newspaper on the table and asked if the President knows. One of the men says yes he knows. The picture of the First Lady looks like Jackie Kennedy but you have to catch it because it flashed quick in the movie.
Strangelove should never been made. It is a shame that such an emotionally intense, and gripping story will be forever equated to a farse. Fail safe stands superior, and was the correct way to depict this material. This movie warns of mans extreme Paranoia, and having destructive weapons that he is not ready for.
Both are classics but Fail Safe is superior. I was a teen in a military family when I first saw it, in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. To me, Fail Safe was real life. I lived on an airbase in southern Florida in that October, targeted to be attacked by soviet missiles if Kennedy hadn’t won the power play over Kruschev. Fail Safe showed the fate we faced in 1962. I could appreciate the truth better than the dark humor about near annihilation.
First off...screw Alec Baldwin. Second...the cockpit scenes were not filmed in a B- 58 Hustler. The Hustler had a 3 man crew seated one behind the other. Great movie.
I liked Fail-Safe far more than Dr. Strangelove. The sexual innuendos and comedy just didn't work for me in fact they took me out of the experience. The Dr. Strangelove character also weirded me out.
Henry Fonda and Larry Hagman should both have won Academy Awards for their performances in this film.
It's is really a shame that this level of talent does not exist today.
+M Perry O_o
Hagman should definitely have won multiple Emmys for his iconic performance as JR. Ewing
This movie was eclipsed by Dr. Strangelove. I consider Fail Safe to be the better movie.
As long as we have youtube Robert Osborne will always be alive in a certain way. And I agree with the guy downstream. I could watch Osborne and Baldwin discuss breakfast cereal.
I still get chills when Hagman quietly says, " Holy Mother of God. " They say that movies are a reflection of its own society. The greatest fear in the early 1960s was atomic war. I was 12 when air raid sirens were placed in our schoolyard. People were building bomb shelters in their backyards. Communists were stockpiling weapons in Cuba. And Fail Safe came to the theaters.
A great film that's leaves you on the edge of your seat. My generation grew up with the threat of nuclear war.
I saw this in the 60's as kid. It scared me. It's haunted me all this time. Top 10 movie.
I was just looking at a couple scenes from it, and I decided it's really a horror film. I come here, and Osborne says the same thing!
I don't think we need the Matthau character at all, as Baldwin intimates. He's there to lampoon conservatives/hawks and was probably the stepping off point for Kubrick's lampoon.
Osborne mentions there's no music! Yes! I wasn't conscious of that, but that is something that makes it so haunting and claustrophobic in some way.
There was a TV mini-series (movie) called "World War III" in the early 80's that nobody's heard of so no spoiler alert is needed. VERY similar mood. No music, claustrophobic. World-wide Apocalypse decided on a local scale between small units of USSR troops and American troops in Alaska who have no communication to higher authority (due to weather). Cut off, following prior orders, aware of the stakes, wondering how far to go.
Great performance by Rock Hudson (!) as the US President appearing just in one room as in "Fail Safe," talking to the Russia Premier on a hot line.
It ends differently.
Is amazing the contrast of Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe, yet in such close proximity. And how Strangelove makes a comedy out of total annihilation, yet Fail Safe becomes a horror in trying to be empathetic and fair. Really makes the viewer think about trust and sacrifice like no other movie!
Was unaware we'd lost Robert Osborne!!!
I watched this as a teenager in the 70's and the end terrified me.
good, that was the point, i just found the film, and good god, hard to sleep after that
I remember watching this movie on tv (late 60’s , early 70’s). I was a small child. It almost scared me to death. I used to live in New York.
The ending almost scared me to death and I do NOT live in New York!!
Fail Safe and Dr Strangelove should always be shown together. Fail Safe playing it straight and then the mad genius of Kubrick's black comedy.
If you saw the commentary, Alec explained why they should NOT be shown together. I agree with him.
And in 1967 your teacher slipped on a bar of soap in the bathtub and died. Doh!
I believe that Matthau's character was based on guys like Edward Teller and (in particular) Herman Kahn, a think-tank futurist who wrote "On Thermonuclear War"...
I saw this on television when I was younger maybe 8 or 9 and it scared me so much... its still scary
I was 15 when I first saw this, after growing up under the 50s Cold War and entering the turbulent 60s and 70s. I preferred it to Dr. Strangelove. It was grim, full of doom but it was realistic. This same threat exists in 2022, and people still haven’t learned the lesson: You can’t repeat the same actions and get different results.
The first 2 times I saw Fail Safe was on the same day. ; at my grammar school ,went home and it's on tv. I'm thinking am I freaking freaking Like this movie
Robert Osborne... memory eternal.
Alec's right about Matthau. But, the most riveting and on-point portrayal in my blinkered view? Frank Overton as General Bogan.
"Loud and clear, so they know we're on the level." Not only commanding and tense, but maybe a little desperate?
"General, is your family in ....?"
@@tomgoode3658 I don't overlook the work of Daniel Peter O'Herlihy, late of Co. Wexford. Consummate pro in whatever he was handed.
To this day what if?
@@tomgoode3658 That scene when he asked the Russian Col about the whereabouts of his family then catches himself he knew right away.
can't get your channel here without huge financials...love the movie
Cinema and movie lovers owe an incalculable debt to Ted Turner for launching this station.
This is a brilliant film (for me, better than Dr Strangelove) that really has you on the edge of your seat. The tension is almost claustrophobic.
The only scene I didn't like was the bizarre one in the car with the woman who gets turned on by talking about nuclear war.
I agree with Baldwin, I wasn't mad keen on Walter Matthau either.
Everyone else is fantastic.
I don't really have a problem with Matthau's performance because overall, I think the film is a touch overdone. It's realistic, but it is the hyper-realism they did in movies at the time.
I also prefer this film more. The comedy and sexual innuendos in Dr. Strangelove weirded me out. This one really felt human and emotional to me. The characters all had clear arcs. Even the little scene between Bogan and Prokiev over the phone as Bogan looked at Prokiev's file brought me to tears.
@@acdragonrider Yes, exactly.
If I remember rightly, Bogan was about to ask if he had been able to get his family out of Moscow and then thought it would be too painful if the answer was no.
The films had a different emphasis. Dr Strangelove showed how ridiculous nuclear war is.
Fail Safe showed how terrifying it is.
One of the issues I had with Dr Strangelove (which I still think is a very, very good film) was that Kubrick pushed the performances too far - particularly George C Scott towards the end of the film.
Apparently, Scott was furious that Kubrick used what he said would be over the top 'warm-up' takes in the final cut.
@@Scopper81 Overdone?
I don't see how the terrifying subject matter can be overdone.
@@ppuh6tfrz646 Not the subject matter, but the movie itself.
Cant stand Alec as a person but he was the best Essentials co-host.
I feel the same away , any other time i see Alec i cringe.
Get ready for 2021 Alec,he surpasses himself in the cringe department.
megalomaniac baldwin a ZERO talent & a WOMAN BEATER - the classic liberal
Wonder what Barry Goldwater thought of this film? I remember the book stated that the President's wife was in New York on this morning. I don't remember that in the film unless I just missed it.
Oh yes you missed it. Someone tosses a newspaper on the table and asked if the President knows. One of the men says yes he knows. The picture of the First Lady looks like Jackie Kennedy but you have to catch it because it flashed quick in the movie.
@@gwenfluker3436 .... I believe it was the crippled Secty. of State in the conference room who solemnly says "He knows."
Strangelove should never been made. It is a shame that such an emotionally intense, and gripping story will be forever equated to a farse. Fail safe stands superior, and was the correct way to depict this material. This movie warns of mans extreme Paranoia, and having destructive weapons that he is not ready for.
Dr Strangelove is a tour de force Black Comedy. It is superb in that role as is Fail Safe in the non comedic genre. Both movies are classics.
Both are classics but Fail Safe is superior. I was a teen in a military family when I first saw it, in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. To me, Fail Safe was real life. I lived on an airbase in southern Florida in that October, targeted to be attacked by soviet missiles if Kennedy hadn’t won the power play over Kruschev. Fail Safe showed the fate we faced in 1962. I could appreciate the truth better than the dark humor about near annihilation.
First off...screw Alec Baldwin.
Second...the cockpit scenes were not filmed in a B- 58 Hustler. The Hustler had a 3 man crew seated one behind the other.
Great movie.
But the planes were not B-58 Hustlers, they were fictional "Vindicators," thus they can have whatever cockpit design the script requires.
Who would think a neebish like Baldwin would murder a cinematographer later in life???
Matthau was great in this, Baldwin must've been drinking during his viewing.
This is what movie podcasts were 20 years ago.
Anyone watch the “live version”?.
I watched the live version live. It didn't really stick with me.
It was available for streaming recently (since 2015)... It was good in it's way, but the original is hard to beat.
Forget Fail Safe. Try Dr. Strangelove and have a good laugh
Hydrogen bums
2:44 The Anderson Tapes shouldn't be included as an example of Lumet's great work.
It's not a good film.
That's your opinion. I thought it was a great heist gone wrong film.
@@ricardocantoral7672 That's because you don't know what you're talking about.
I liked Fail-Safe far more than Dr. Strangelove. The sexual innuendos and comedy just didn't work for me in fact they took me out of the experience. The Dr. Strangelove character also weirded me out.
Schwetty balls..
The book was better.
"The book" is (almost) always better.