'Fail Safe' Director: Sidney Lumet (1964) Criterion Collection Blu-ray | 4K restoration 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. Special features include:- Audio commentary from 2000 featuring director Sidney Lumet- 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 Lumet, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actor Dan O’Herlihy- Essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri
![Fail-Safe [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0679/7833/0399/products/ea3b3316d1b3e200feefd11c9852d7e3_31a4cc4f-1932-4f50-a9f2-97f43eb888ab.jpg?v=1681989006&width=480)
