Failsafe (1964, Sidney Lumet) & Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Stanley Kubrick)

Dr. Strangelove

Failsafe

Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove are two sides of the same coin.
Both explore an impending accidental nuclear apocolypse in the infancy of the Cold War period. Both are based on novels, the former based on Failsafe by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler and the latter based on Red Alert by Peter George.

There's some mental legal beurocracy behind the scenes of these films.
Both released in the same year, Kubrick was dubious about the reception of his own film, as Lumet's thriller had some big names attached, and the added edge of realism and potent social commentary, whereas the satirical nature of Dr. Strangelove approached the issue in a different light.
The novel of Failsafe was accused of plagiarising the former Red Alert and there was a legal battle between them, settling out of court...
Dr. Strangelove was released eight months before Failsafe and the test of time has seen Kubrick's masterpiece outshine Lumet's equally as enthralling work in memory and box office reciepts.

Failsafe is just extremely tense and masterfully shot.
The bomber scenes convey the insane consequences that de-humanising military pawns can have on the fate of human existance.

The acting is outstanding and is amazingly scripted, with some deep philosophical insights into the mindset of mislaid power struggles and inept preventative systems which are put in place to stop us tearing ourselves from the face of the planet, but end up putting way too much power and control in the hands of incompetency.

The bizarre hypocricy and stale-mate politics of human's 'ultimate' control of such powerful weapons, lays far too much pressure on the human mind, and Failsafe highlights the ludicrousness of this weight of decision and nuclear weapons in general.

Amazingly put together, with some of the most tense cinematic moments ever, this is one of my all time fav's as it is captivating, insightful and downright scary right 'til the climax.

10/10!

Trailer:


Dr. Strangelove's take on an extremely similar storyline runs with this ludicrousness even further, directly challenging and mocking the power structure of cold war doomsday weapons, and just purely saying 'what the fuck was wrong with them'.

Peter Sellers plays three of the main characters in this film and is just amazingly funny in all of them...
Enternalising the stupidity of nuclear war in his Dr. Strangelove character, Sellers plays an 'ex'-Nazi, who is granted the influential power of scientific advisor to the president...

There really isn't much to say apart from this is one of the funniest, most influential satirical comedies of the last 50 years without a DOUBT, and has one of the most iconic ending sequences in the history of film.

10/10!

Amazing trailer as well!:


Cal x