S2 Ep. 14: Fail Safe (1964, Sidney Lumet)
About this episode
The episode discusses Sidney Lumet's film Fail Safe and its critique of nuclear war and technology.
The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss Sidney Lumet's 1964 film Fail Safe, a powerful (and bold) independent Hollywood production that paints a horrific picture of a potential nuclear war. The film was released the same year as Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and has remained in its shadow, unfairly, ever since. In this episode we discuss: Sidney Lumut's fascinating and underrated cinematic career The political and historical context of Fail Safe (1964), a film that captures the paranoia of nuclear proliferation The film's critique of war technology and how that maps onto our current era of AI-assisted warfare. The limits of Hollywood storrytelling for a truly radical critique of US imperialism _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Jason recommends the 1992 book Signatures of the Visible by Fredric Jameson. Paul recommends the novel Advise and Consent by Allen Drury and Otto Preminger's 1962 film adaptiion Avise & Consent . Tony recommends the book Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality by Fredric Jameson and W.E.B. Du Bois's book Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil…
People in this episode
Hosts: Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, Paul T. Klein
Topics covered
- nuclear war
- political context
- Hollywood storytelling
- US imperialism
- AI-assisted warfare
- Sidney Lumet's career
Keywords
- Fail Safe
- Sidney Lumet
- nuclear proliferation
- Hollywood
- US imperialism
- AI warfare
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove, Signatures of the Visible, Advise and Consent, Avise & Consent, Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
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