It could be just me, but as i'm watching this movie right now i can't help but think of Kubric's "Dr.Strangelove or How i lived and learned to love the bomb" (or something..) But i guess that's a compliment; loved that movie!
shareThe original of this movie came out at the same time as Dr. Strangelove.
Havn't seen the original, but after i had seen Strangelove I stopped liking this version since I saw it as a complete rip-off from Strangelove.
shareThis film used the same script as the origninal, which came out in 1964, the same year as Strangelove, so I think its a little harsh to call it a complete rip-off.
shareI agree, you just can't call it a rip off. It would be fair to say that you like Strangelove better. Because the original Fail Safe came out about the time as Strangelove and this is just simply a remake of the original Fail Safe than this is not a rip off at all of Strangelove.
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You guys also know that Strangelove was meant to basically be a parody of Fail Safe, hence the similarities... right?
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Kubrick started off making a serious film about the policy of "mutual assured destruction" in the vein of Paths of Glory but the idea of the bomb and the logic behind it seemed so ludicrous to him he gradually turned it into a black comedy. Fail safe can be seen as a version of Strangelove played with a straight face.
share[deleted]
You guys also know that Strangelove was meant to basically be a parody of Fail Safe, hence the similarities... right?
"Strangelove" was based on the 1958 novel "Red Alert" by Peter George. This "nuclear war" genre probably started with Neville Shute's 1957 novel "On The Beach" which was made into a film in 1959.
"Fail Safe" was originaly a novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, published in 1962. Peter George sued Burdick and Wheeler for plagiarism, and settled out of court. The original version of the film was released in 1964, and the documentary style was very much influenced by "On The Beach".
There is a 4th film in this genre called "The Bedford Incident" released in 1965, and based on the Mark Rascovich novel of the same year. This has a naval setting and starred Sidney Poitier & Richard Widmark.
All four novel's and their films are very much of their time and reflect the paranoia generated by the Cold War.
Correction: A bit of research - http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/nuclear/1chap.htm - suggests that "Strangelove" is based on Peter Bryant's 1958 novel "Two Hours to Doom", and that the genre is much older than I thought.
Wow, thanks for the info, Sid. Good to know!
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Red Alert IS Two Hours to Doom...they are not separate books but the very same. From wikipedia....
Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. The book was the basis for Stanley Kubrick's film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Kubrick's film differs significantly from the novel in that it is a comedy.
Originally published in the UK as Two Hours to Doom -- with George using the pseudonym "Peter Bryant" -- the novel deals with the apocalyptic threat of nuclear war and the almost absurd ease with which it can be triggered. A genre of such topical fiction sprang up in the late 1950s -- led by Nevil Shute's On the Beach -- of which Red Alert was among the earliest examples.
Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler's later bestseller Fail-Safe so closely resembled Red Alert in its premise that George sued on the charge of plagiarism, resulting in an out-of-court settlement. Both novels would inspire very different films that would both be released in 1964 by the same studio (Columbia Pictures).
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Really useful! Thanks!
I really had the impression that "Fail Safe" was just a copy of Dr. Strangelove, but now I can enjoying it again as an original remake, not one trying to lure unaware viewers as inedit story.
I've just seen it on TCM. The commentator at the end said that Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove were based on two books released at the same time on the same subject. Stanley Kubrick (the director of Dr. Strangelove) sued to have the release of Fail Safe delayed so he could release his film first.
I personally feel Dr. Strangelove is kinda flaky. I like the original Fail Safe better (I saw the live version and it felt really stale to me).
'Red Alert' & 'Two Hours to Doom' are the same novel.
From Wikipedia: >'Red Alert is a 1958 novel by Peter George about nuclear war. The book was the basis for Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Kubrick's film differs significantly from the novel in that it is a black comedy.
Originally published in the UK as Two Hours to Doom – with George using the pseudonym "Peter Bryant" (Bryan Peters for the French translation, 120 minutes pour sauver le monde) – the novel deals with the apocalyptic threat of nuclear war and the almost absurd ease with which it can be triggered. A genre of such topical fiction sprang up in the late 1950s – led by Nevil Shute's On the Beach – of which Red Alert was among the earliest examples.<
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Sid is right about "Two Hours to Doom".. A brilliant book, that made me wish for a proper film version to be made.
As for this version of Fail Safe, Why did they bother.?
General Blacks dream sequence was not shown, and the original version of Fail Safe made this effort look like a underdone version, an almost word for word copy.
It was not broken, so why try and fix it. Watch the original, and judge for yourself.
Why are you so emphatic about something when you are demonstrably wrong? The two films were made at the same time. One was a serious version, the other a satire, of the same basic fact scenario. Neither copied or spoofed the other.
shareexactly, i just watched Fail Safe.
shareThough both films deal with nuclear conflict there are substantial differences in the plot and the intention of the directors concerned. Most notably in Strangelove the conflict is started by a madman while mechanical error is to blame in fail safe.
To say that Fail safe is a 'rip off' of Strangelove is as stupid as saying 'saving Private Ryan' is a ripoff of 'The Longest day' because they both deal with D-Day!
hmmmm!
I really don't see all of the arguments comparing Strangelove to Fail-Safe. It's like comparing "Stagecoach" to "Blazing Saddles" just because both are westerns. One is a serious drama, the other is a comedy.
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Strangelove and Fail Safe are not connected productions. Neither is Strangelove a satire of Fail Safe. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, and throughout the Cold War, nuclear war was a major topic.
The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan are two similar movies about World War II that were released at the same time, but different productions. Strangelove and Fail Safe can be seen in a similar light.
Rent or buy Dr. Strangelove the special edition. There's a documentary that outlines Kubrick's Strangelove and Fail Safe.
Kubrick sued to keep Fail Safe from opening before his picture, because he shrewdly knew that the first one released would be the more succesful film. He was right.
The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan are NOT two similar movies about World War II that were released at the same time.
shareOkay, I don't care that all this was posted ages ago, but here are the facts, people. Obviously none of you did your homework.
The movies of Fail Safe and Doctor Strangelove both came out at the same time, yes. However, they are both based off of two different books. Doctor Strangelove was based off of a book called Red Alert. Fail Safe was based on a book of the same title. The book Fail Safe was actually brought to court for plagiarism of Red Alert, which was settled out of court.
From what I understand, Kubrick enjoyed the book Red Alert and of course wanted to make a movie about it. But he made it a comedy instead, adding the character Dr. Strangelove, fiddling with some characters' names, and adding in the Soviet Doomsday Device.
Similar discussions have arisen over films which came suspiciously close together even though they were based on two different sources:
A Star is Born and What Price Hollywood (one spoouse on the way up, the other on the way down--both original and unrelated screenplays)
Min and Bill and Stella Dallas (both involve mothers--surrogate or birth--making ultimate sacrifices for daughters)
Gordy and Babe (talking pigs)
Born to Be Bad and All About Eve (both 1950, both about conniving beyotches who put up a nicey-nice front)
Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, fathers switching bodies with sons a la Freaky Friday--or grandfather in the case of 18 Again.
AND THE MOST RECENT
Capote and Infamous (both involving the story of writer Truman Capote's obsession with the subjects of his novel In Cold Blood)
Now maybe there was some copying in some of these cases, but the fact that it happens as often as it does to me makes it seem as though there simply aren't enough original ideas to go around. OR (more likely), the "suits" at studios aren't a very diverse bunch and they all greenlight the same types of movies.
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I thought that in the original. Spot on.
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"Fail-Safe" was based on the 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. "Dr. Strangelove" was based on the 1958 novel RED ALERT by Peter George.
Kubrick ("Strangelove" writer/director) sued the producers of "Fail-Safe" for plagiarism to stop production when he realized they were trying to get that movie out before "Strangelove".
("Strangelove", though the comedy/satire, had more accurate details. A docu with the dvd showed the classified military response to nuclear threat, step-by-step, which got Kubrick interrogated by the FBI for information on his sources.)
http://books.google.com/books?id=fU78LdDClHUC&pg=PA242&lpg=PA242&dq=peter+george+lawsuit+plagiarism&source=bl&ots=uzEeJaz8ib&sig=hb8hzNggFaXaVuviezGvvvwb2m0&hl=en&ei=C4sZTOvHLYO8lQfah9T5Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=peter%20george%20lawsuit%20plagiarism&f=false