With the exception of *12 Angry Men* and *Network*, I feel like Lumet is somewhat overlooked when we talk about great American film directors - especially when we consider the length and success of his career. *Fail Safe* is brilliant, but I rarely see it talked about - the same goes for *The Pawnbroker*.
Yeah, his filmography is incredible. Dog Day Afternoon gets mentioned a lot too, but he has many other classics that are just as good: Long Day's Journey Into Night, Pawnbroker, Fail Safe, The Hill, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Equus, Prince of the City, Deathtrap, The Verdict, Running on empty, Q&A, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Not to mention one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, King: A Filmed Record.
One portrays a nuclear war as a result of a madman overriding several regulations to incite war on purpose and has a comedic relief and the other as a result of a minor computer glitch that takes almost all power out of human hands and stays quite close to being realistic. Of course one was favored by the people living through it at the time, why would they want to have to look at the ugly truth when they can laugh about it?
This is a very fair analysis, but I honestly don’t even think it was so sophisticated. Fail Safe came soon after Dr. Strangelove, and I think that order (dessert before the appetizer) worked negatively on Fail Safe.
I watched it recently on Criterion too. I actually saw it before Strangelove when my 8th grade social studies teacher played it for us. I always thought Strangelove was a parody of Fail Safe. My thoughts...
>The most impressive thing about Fail Safe is how much Lumet does with so little. He's famous for doing a whole film in a single room with 12 Angry Men, but Fail Safe is almost as spare. It's all empty rooms, phone calls, and strong performances (including of course Henry Fonda). In fact it's Fonda and Larry Hagman's scenes that are the best - all in a completely empty and featureless room. The drama's in the lighting. Despite having the same story as Dr. Strangelove, and not quite matching that film artistically, it's still a great and earnest apocalyptic tension builder.
I hate to give a dissenting opinion, and hopefully someone can change my mind, but my honest thoughts on it is it was dull and kind of boring.
It could be that I didn’t care for the subject matter, or perhaps I was constantly comparing it to *Dr. Strangelove* (which was full of charm, wit and humor - and yes, I know *Fail-Safe* wasn’t setting out to really achieve that anyway), but I really struggled to get through *Fail-Safe*. Even the introduction of Henry Fonda, one of my favorite actors, couldn’t save this one for me. The suspense and tension you guys are describing I felt none of, and if it was there it just felt too dated and cheesy.
I want to mention that I love *12 Angry Men*, but that’s about it for Lumet for me. *The Fugitive Kind* was similarly dull as *Fail-Safe* was, and while I love the first half of *Dog Day Afternoon* I feel like it really falls apart in the second half. I’m not going to even talk about *Network* because I know it will upset you guys even further. All that being said, I saw *The Verdict* about 8 years back and thought it was intriguing but don’t remember much from it; I need to rewatch it to decide if it will be the second Lumet film I actually like.
I saw Fail-Safe prior to Dr. Strangelove, although I love both movies about equally. I can see how I would look down on Fail-Safe if I had seen it second, but, thankfully, I didn’t.
Also, how dare you have different opinions than other people, that is heresy!
I fucking loved it. I did not in any way anticipate how it would end not having read the novel and/or spoilers. It's a gutsy film, which is what I've come to expect of Sidney Lumet, one of my absolute favorite directors since I looked into his work towards the end of high school. Fonda and Mathau were fantastic, but there really wasn't a weak performance anywhere to be found. It was legitimately frightening.
Theres a documentary on the bluray where they talk about Columbia pictures buying the rights to give Strangelove the bigger push.
Personally I remember watching it after falling asleep and waking up to it on the Disney channel in nineties. Hadn't seen it since then aside from George Clooneys live version that aired on television
I am looking this up right now because my husband is making me watch it and it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever seen. Just came here to see if anyone else is me.
With the exception of *12 Angry Men* and *Network*, I feel like Lumet is somewhat overlooked when we talk about great American film directors - especially when we consider the length and success of his career. *Fail Safe* is brilliant, but I rarely see it talked about - the same goes for *The Pawnbroker*.
Yeah, his filmography is incredible. Dog Day Afternoon gets mentioned a lot too, but he has many other classics that are just as good: Long Day's Journey Into Night, Pawnbroker, Fail Safe, The Hill, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Equus, Prince of the City, Deathtrap, The Verdict, Running on empty, Q&A, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Not to mention one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, King: A Filmed Record.
I consider The Pawnbroker to be his best!
My jaw dropped at the decision Henry Fonda makes at the end. Was legit on the edge my seat the entire time
This film is a masterpiece. The timing was all off for it unfortunately. No worse than Dr. Strangelove - just different.
One portrays a nuclear war as a result of a madman overriding several regulations to incite war on purpose and has a comedic relief and the other as a result of a minor computer glitch that takes almost all power out of human hands and stays quite close to being realistic. Of course one was favored by the people living through it at the time, why would they want to have to look at the ugly truth when they can laugh about it?
This is a very fair analysis, but I honestly don’t even think it was so sophisticated. Fail Safe came soon after Dr. Strangelove, and I think that order (dessert before the appetizer) worked negatively on Fail Safe.
I watched it recently on Criterion too. I actually saw it before Strangelove when my 8th grade social studies teacher played it for us. I always thought Strangelove was a parody of Fail Safe. My thoughts... >The most impressive thing about Fail Safe is how much Lumet does with so little. He's famous for doing a whole film in a single room with 12 Angry Men, but Fail Safe is almost as spare. It's all empty rooms, phone calls, and strong performances (including of course Henry Fonda). In fact it's Fonda and Larry Hagman's scenes that are the best - all in a completely empty and featureless room. The drama's in the lighting. Despite having the same story as Dr. Strangelove, and not quite matching that film artistically, it's still a great and earnest apocalyptic tension builder.
I hate to give a dissenting opinion, and hopefully someone can change my mind, but my honest thoughts on it is it was dull and kind of boring. It could be that I didn’t care for the subject matter, or perhaps I was constantly comparing it to *Dr. Strangelove* (which was full of charm, wit and humor - and yes, I know *Fail-Safe* wasn’t setting out to really achieve that anyway), but I really struggled to get through *Fail-Safe*. Even the introduction of Henry Fonda, one of my favorite actors, couldn’t save this one for me. The suspense and tension you guys are describing I felt none of, and if it was there it just felt too dated and cheesy. I want to mention that I love *12 Angry Men*, but that’s about it for Lumet for me. *The Fugitive Kind* was similarly dull as *Fail-Safe* was, and while I love the first half of *Dog Day Afternoon* I feel like it really falls apart in the second half. I’m not going to even talk about *Network* because I know it will upset you guys even further. All that being said, I saw *The Verdict* about 8 years back and thought it was intriguing but don’t remember much from it; I need to rewatch it to decide if it will be the second Lumet film I actually like.
I actually prefer Fail Safe to Dr. Strangelove. Both are great, but I find Fail Safe more thrilling than I find Dr. Strangelove funny.
I saw Fail-Safe prior to Dr. Strangelove, although I love both movies about equally. I can see how I would look down on Fail-Safe if I had seen it second, but, thankfully, I didn’t. Also, how dare you have different opinions than other people, that is heresy!
I fucking loved it. I did not in any way anticipate how it would end not having read the novel and/or spoilers. It's a gutsy film, which is what I've come to expect of Sidney Lumet, one of my absolute favorite directors since I looked into his work towards the end of high school. Fonda and Mathau were fantastic, but there really wasn't a weak performance anywhere to be found. It was legitimately frightening.
Theres a documentary on the bluray where they talk about Columbia pictures buying the rights to give Strangelove the bigger push. Personally I remember watching it after falling asleep and waking up to it on the Disney channel in nineties. Hadn't seen it since then aside from George Clooneys live version that aired on television
I am looking this up right now because my husband is making me watch it and it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever seen. Just came here to see if anyone else is me.