October 27, 2009
Fail-Safe 45
There's a point during an air flight, just after takeoff, when the plane is listing, bouncing uneasily in the air as if
trying to gain traction in the clouds. A passenger will feel tightness in the stomach, grip the arm rest a little more
firmly, and perhaps glance around to see if anyone else's face displays their gut.
It's that sensation of the unknown, the commingling of the vaporous and the mechanic, soaring amongst the blue
clouds in a motorized behemoth, of being both in a state that defies human physical limitations yet makes us
completely vulnerable to the foibles of the pilots, air traffic controllers, mechanics, engineers and maintenance
workers responsible for the plane's ability to fly plus the natural dangers of bird flocks, rain, wind, snow and
darkness that make flying in an airplane perhaps the most exhilarating of human experiences. Albeit, also one
quite commonplace.
There is nothing routine about air travel but the above horrors and fascination all exist in the thousands of flights
across the world each day. The terror and danger of an airplane flight is magnified a million-fold when that flight's
purpose is not one of transportation, but of war. But don't think of war just yet. Think about your phone. Or your
computer. Is it frustrating when you can't get in touch with someone? We know the angst and anger over such
things especially when the matter is urgent. Now let's put ourselves in a room where the phone doesn't work and
there are airplanes, several of them, in the sky and they have bombs and we need to call those planes to tell the
pilots not to drop those bombs because...because we don't want the world to end.
This is the world of the sublime film "Fail-Safe" which was released 45 years ago this month. "Fail-Safe," based
on the book by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, was created amid the cold war when a nuclear apocalypse
appeared very possible, perhaps imminent, as the U.S. and U.S.S.R. engaged in a frightening arms race. In the
film, a group of U.S. bombers are sent to attack Moscow and, while such an errand was the apex of cold war
preparedness, it was all a mistake.
What makes "Fail-Safe" a haunting film is that conjoins the unthinkable with the endlessly knowable. One cannot
truly comprehend a large-scale nuclear war yet we know all about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One cannot bear to
think of nuclear attack happening by mistake but we all know how inefficient our technology can be and how
terribly mistake-prone humans are. We don't like to think someone would do something horrible even if they were
99-percent sure no one was making them do it but...
Henry Fonda stars in "Fail-Safe" as the President of the United States. His name is never said in the movie and
doesn't have to be because if ever there was a Presidential figure, it was Henry Fonda. Much like Fonda's role a
few years earlier in another terrific film by "Fail-Safe" director Sidney Lumet, "12 Angry Men," Fonda's character in
"Fail-Safe" fights to maintain serenity amid madness in hopes of coming to the proper conclusion. But unlike "12
Angry Men" when Fonda must convince others to see his way through the use of skilled reasoning and emotional
manipulation, in "Fail-Safe" he has little more resonance than a man whose phone cuts in and out during a
rainstorm. "Fail-Safe" is a world where impotence taunts power, fear bleeds slowly over courage and knowledge
retains the stability of a pinwheel - mesmerizing and sickening - like an airplane hitting turbulence.
"Fail-Safe" is populated with smart, deep, aggressive characters left grasping at the violence and illness they
have helped create. Walter Matthau is a fear-mongering tactician who sees war as part folly, part aphrodisiac and
also a steady paycheck in a performance that displays his under-appreciated powers as an actor. A young Larry
Hagman is the translator who must not only convey definition but also interpret true meaning. Edward Binns,
Frank Overton and Fritz Weaver are military commanders torn, tragically, between duty and humanity in a situation
where the two are no longer compatible. Finally, there is the late, great Dan O'Herlihy playing the Air Force
general tormented by prescient nightmares which tell him his own horrific fate could also be that of the world. You
won't see better acting in any movie.
It is irresponsible to go on at length about "Fail-Safe" without mentioning another film which also came out in
1964. "Dr. Strangelove," directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Terry Southern and Peter George from
George's book "Red Alert," is also about the terror of nuclear holocaust fueled by the absurdity of military protocol
except "Strangelove" does it, remarkably, with a laugh. Peter Sellers leads the satirical parade playing three
characters, including the title role, and is nearly as good as an ensemble of one as "Fail-Safe's" entire cast.
Nearly.
Considering the contrasting attitudes of the two films is like considering spilling coffee all over a new shirt. Most
days it's not funny, but some days it is. It's incorrect to say one should never laugh at tragedy just as it's perverse
to say you always should. Death and destruction don't leave us smiling but life's absurdity must, occasionally at
least, be greeted with a smile or else madness and depression will be all that's left in the rubble.
"Fail-Safe" could very well be my favorite movie. Along with the acting, it's superbly written and Lumet's directorial
pacing should be studied by all film directors, both aspiring and established. With great acting, directing and
writing and the most serious of all subject matters - the possible extinction of the human race - it's tough to go
wrong. Still, there is something in addition to all those things which makes "Fail-Safe" a film that remains worth
watching over and over. Perhaps it's in the lighting. The film is black-and-white and produces shadows that
convey a lingering nefariousness, as if we know something's creeping up on us from the dark and we have the
power to escape it, but must move quickly. Or perhaps, it's the piercing sound of a jet roaring through the sky and
then, out of fuel, hovering for a moment helplessly locked inside a prism of time, space and experience before the
quick descent into death.
A friend of mine's mother passed away in February. During the eulogy my friend asked mourners to think of their
favorite movie and I instantly considered "Fail-Safe." Then, my friend said that being with her mother was like
watching her favorite movie and "never wanting it to end." I told my mother about this and asked with a self-
deprecating laugh what kind of person I could be because, unlike my friend who asked everyone to think of the
hero from their favorite movie or the happy ending, I thought about an old black-and-white film about destruction
and ultimate war. My mother, of course, laughed with me. I don't remember exactly what she said to comfort me
but that doesn't matter as much as the fact that we laughed. We considered tragedy, and we smiled. We didn't
know, or at least I didn't know at the time that, like my friend, I was soon to lose my mother. When someone in
your life, someone you love and adore, dies it is nothing like a movie. It is a little bit like an airplane ride, though.
You are caught in a somnambulant gulf stream, afloat in something uncontrollable and unpredictable. Your
stomach is hollow, your memories spin quickly before you and, as you’re surrounded by the ether, you wonder if
you’re going to survive. --TK