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Licensor Information
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Featuring: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Dan O’Herlihy, Frank Overton, Edward Binns, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman
This unnerving procedural thriller painstakingly details an all-too-plausible nightmare scenario in which a mechanical failure jams the United States military’s chain of command and sends the country hurtling toward nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Working from a contemporary best seller, screenwriter Walter Bernstein and director Sidney Lumet wrench harrowing suspense from the doomsday fears of the Cold War era, making the most of a modest budget and limited sets to create an atmosphere of clammy claustrophobia and astronomically high stakes. Starring Henry Fonda as a coolheaded U.S. president and Walter Matthau as a trigger-happy political theorist, Fail Safe is a long-underappreciated alarm bell of a film, sounding an urgent warning about the deadly logic of mutually assured destruction.
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Disc:
DVD-9 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85:1
Audio Options:
English Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Audio Commentary, Interview, Documentary, Insert
- Audio commentary from 2000 featuring director Sidney Lumet
- New interview with film critic J. Hoberman on 1960s nuclear paranoia and Cold War films
- “Fail-Safe” Revisited, a short documentary from 2000 including interviews with Sidney Lumet, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actor Dan O’Herlihy
- An essay by critic Bilge Ebiri
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