MovieChat Forums > Fail Safe (2000) Discussion > Terrific Film!!

Terrific Film!!

posted 20 years ago by LaDragula
11 replies | jump to latest

The live broadcast of this spectacularly engaging film is one I'll never forget. The pure action and reality of the acting and the live-ness of it just captures you and brings you into the story faster than a speeding locomotive. Clooney is terrific, as is Wyle as the presidential aide, and Harvey Keitel, as a conflicted and nearly hopeless General is wonderful.

Richard Dreyfuss as the President brings a sense of familiarity to the role, making you think you've met this guy before, while Will Rothaar as Clooney's son (in the original film, it was the pilot's wife, not son), is terrific while trying to reach his father.

Check this flick out. It's well worth it. I also reccomend the original, but the live broadcast version, while much better while watching it live, is still one of the best movies I've seen on TV. Ever.

[–] JohnCusackisLangdon 20 years ago

Yeah this movie is amazing
I also thought Noah Wylie was terrific
Why doesn't he do more films?
I would watch any movie he plays in

[–] nittany4 19 years ago

he has a small but very important role in the movie "Swing Kids"

and he was FANTASTIC as Steve Jobs in "The Pirates of Silicon Valley"

cheers

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108265

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] supercoool89 19 years ago

Yes, it is indeed terrific, but also the most frightening film I have ever seen!

It was done so well... In black and white, and no music... It felt more like a documentary than acting, making it so real...

But still... I hope and pray that day will never come, and that the people of the world will come to their senses and destroy all nuclear weapons, before man makes something that sometimes seem unevitable, destroy himself. Aren't we more clever than that?

Perhaps man isn't the smartest animal after all.

I will try to arrange so that I can show this in school this fall, so that some of my new friends will see how serious world politics actually can be.

Maybe you could do too... Show it to your friends... A microscopical step towards a world free of nuclear weapons... If there'll ever be one...

I want to end this post with a quote from the modern worlds greatest genious and philosopher, Albert Einstein:

"I don't know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know that World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones".

Thank you for reading.

/DANIEL KJELLÉN

[–] khamsin59 16 years ago

Subsitute "islamofascists" for "communists", and you have a microcosm of the America we live in today, with all the fear and paranoia and compromising of civil rights and privacy and the manufacturing of "mushroom cloud" threats to justify insane levels of military spending and outsourcing military and intelligence tasks to private contractors. At least in the era which this film depicts, Russia did pose a certain amount of danger and did have both sufficient nuclear weapons AND the means with which to deliver them to destroy a substantive part of the country. No matter how many (and there aren't that many, maybe 100,000 world wide) GENUINE jihadists, they pose no existential threat to the US; most of them join up in small ragtag bands of bearded miscreants who hide their vicious crimes behind a mask of Islamic piety.

[–] andre-126-157305 9 years ago

I was very impressed by not only by the live acting but the impression that yes this or something very similar could have happened (and still might).

If you want to watch something in a similar vein (not Dr. Strangelove) I would highly recommend watching Threads (1984) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/

I was left feeling pretty disturbed by the grim reality of this one from a British perspective.

[–] Loren-3 18 years ago

I'll be honest ... I wasn't quite as enthralled with Fail/Safe "Live" as some were, but then, I grew up (literally!) with the original film, which is a kick in the teeth in its own right. Call me fussy - a couple sub-plots don't make it in, which I suppose bugged me, but that's nit-picking.

George Clooney took a relatively BIG chance doing this as he did, live, and also in black and white, as the original film was, especially as the only live drama I recall recently is an episode of E.R. (without Clooney, I believe) a few years back, and as someone in another string correctly observed, live television has certainly a lot in common with live theatre ... but a flub in close-up on TV sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb!

Last note: if you liked the live video performance, check out the film. It's a killer cast and the same riveting plotline ... and while you're at it, try "Seven Days in May," with Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas.

Loren

[–] earlinda1956 17 years ago

George was in the live episode
of ER-Actually he went to the
producers with the idea of
doing it live.

[–] Xcalat3 14 years ago

Great stuff!

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] mail-2775 12 years ago

Agree, it is amazing. A hard one to remake, but they nailed it. They trimmed the story and made it a cleaner production. A+++

[–] Woodyanders 12 years ago

Agreed. This one was very well done, with plenty of nerve-rattling suspense and a solid swift pace. Richard Dreyfuss was superb as President.

I'm a totally bitchin' bio writer from Mars!