Remake del
film del 1964 di
Sidney Lumet,
Fail Safe si distingue per la peculiare realizzazione: si tratta infatti di film per la TV trasmesso in diretta dalla CBS nel 2000. Mantenere un buon numero di attori su set diversi, farli recitare al momento e nel modo giusto non deve essere stato banale, ed il risultato ripaga gli sforzi.
Un guasto elettronico spinge un gruppo di bombardieri nucleari americani ad iniziare il piano d'attacco. Mentre si dirigono verso
Mosca, tutto sembra cospirare contro una soluzione pacifica: prima le comunicazioni interrotte dai sovietici, poi il gruppo che - seguendo le istruzioni - si rifiuta di eseguire i comandi ricevuti via radio.
Falliti tutti i tentativi di risolvere la situazione, il presidente americano si mette in comunicazione diretta col suo omologo russo, nella speranza di evitare un conflitto globale.
La soluzione avrà un costo altissimo.
Dopo una partenza tutto sommato lenta, si inizia ad apprezzare il crescendo del panico man mano che la situazione si fa disperata: c'è chi spinge verso un attacco totale e chi dovrà fare scelte dolorose anche sul piano personale.
Ben diretto
Stephen Frears (anche se in realtà il tipo di produzione non consente certo grandi libertà registiche), tutto poggia sulle spalle di un ottimo cast che riesce a mantersi nella parte per tutto il film: del resto
Richard Dreyfuss,
Harvey Keitel,
George Clooney,
James Cromwell e
Noah Wyle non sono certo dei pivelli.
Voto: 8.5.
Tags: drammatico, guerra, guerra nucleare, bomba atomica, Russia, America, Mosca, New York, pentagono, air force, bombardiere, remake, presidente, interprete, diretta tv, computer, schermo tattico.
Keitel, Harvey
Data di nascita: 13 May 1939
Altezza: 5' 7½" (1.71 m)
Coniuge: Daphna Kastner::(7 October 2001 - present) 1 child, Lorraine Bracco::(1982 - 1993) (divorced) 1 child
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Came to prominence in the early films of Martin Scorsese after working in theatre for around ten years, particularly Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976). Faded into anonymity in the eighties even though he turned in some impressive performances in films by some of America's leading directors. He re-emergered into star status with his role as Mr. White in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992), Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992), The Piano (1993) 0110912.
Trivia random: Worked as a court stenographer in NYC for about 10 years while he was a struggling actor.
Citazione random: "Existence is a struggle."
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Cromwell, James (I)
Nome di battesimo: Cromwell, James Oliver
Data di nascita: 27 January 1940
Altezza: 6' 7" (2.01 m)
Coniuge: Julie Cobb::(29 May 1986 - present) (filed for divorce), Anne Ulvestad::(27 November 1976 - 1986) (divorced) 3 children
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Born in Los Angeles but raised in Manhattan and educated at Middlebury College and Carnegie Tech, James Cromwell - the son of noted film director John Cromwell - studied acting at Carnegie-Mellon. He went into the theater (like both his parents) doing everything from Shakespeare to experimental plays. He started doing TV in 1974, gaining some notice in a recurring role as Archie Bunker's buddy Stretch Cunningham in "All in the Family" (1971), made his film debut in 1976, and goes back to the stage periodically. Some of his more noted film roles have been in Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and the surprise hit about a charming pig, Babe (1995). He garnered some of the best reviews of his career - many of which said he should have received an Oscar - for his role as a corrupt, conniving police captain in L.A. Confidential (1997).
Trivia random: Played a fictional President in The Sum of All Fears (2002) and real-life President Lyndon Johnson. Donald Moffat, who has also played Johnson, played the fictional President in Clear and Present Danger (1994).
Citazione random: "Andy Warhol said everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame. And if this is mine, I couldn't imagine a better 15 minutes." [in reference to his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Babe (1995)).
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Wyle, Noah
Nome di battesimo: Wyle, Noah Strausser Speer
Data di nascita: 4 June 1971
Altezza: 6' 2" (1.88 m)
Coniuge: Tracy Warbin::(6 May 2000 - present) 2 children
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Born in Hollywood, California, as one of six children of an electrical engineer and an orthopedic head nurse. Participated in a theater arts program at Northwestern University during high school and appeared in high school plays. After graduation he learned from acting teacher Larry Moss while living in a small apartment on Hollywood Boulevard. His first parts were a mini-series and featuring in the movie Crooked Hearts (1991) in 1990.
Trivia random: September 2004: Announced that he's leaving "ER" (1994) after 10 years to make room for the upcoming generation.
Citazione random: "It's weird, I actually like doing interviews now. Ever since I gave up therapy, it's my only time with a captive audience."
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Dreyfuss, Richard
Nome di battesimo: Dreyfus, Richard Stephen
Data di nascita: 29 October 1947
Altezza: 5' 5" (1.65 m)
Coniuge: Svetlana Erokhin::(16 March 2006 - present), Janelle Lacey::(30 May 1999 - 2005) (divorced), Jeramie Rain::(20 March 1983 - August 1995) (divorced) 3 children
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:American leading man who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers, Dreyfuss worked his way up through bit parts (The Graduate (1967), for one) and TV before gaining attention with his portrayal of Baby Face Nelson in John Milius' Dillinger (1973). He gained prominence as a college-bound young man in American Graffiti (1973) and as a nervy Jewish kid with high hopes in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). By the latter part of the 1970s, Dreyfuss was established as a major star, playing leads (and alter-egos) for 'Steven Spielberg' in two of the top-grossing films of the that decade: Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). He won a Best Actor Oscar in his first romantic lead as an out-of-work actor in The Goodbye Girl (1977). Dreyfuss also produced and starred in the entertaining private eye movie The Big Fix (1978). After a brief lull in the early 1980s, a well-publicized drug problem and a succession of commercial disappointments (The Competition (1980), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), The Buddy System (1984)), a clean and sober Dreyfuss re-established himself in the mid-'as one of Hollywood's more engaging leads. He co-starred with Bette Midler and Nick Nolte in Paul Mazursky's popular Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). That same year Dreyfuss provided the narration and appeared in the opening and closing "bookends" of Rob Reiner's nostalgic Stand by Me (1986). He quickly followed up with Nuts (1987) opposite Barbra Streisand, Barry Levinson's Tin Men (1987) with Danny DeVito and Stakeout (1987) with Emilio Estevez. Dreyfuss continued working steadily through the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, most notably in Mazursky's Moon Over Parador (1988), Spielberg's Always (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990) and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). He appeared as a member of an ensemble that included Holly Hunter, Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello in the romantic comedy _Once Around_ (1991)- and opposite Bill Murray in the successful comedy What About Bob? (1991). Dreyfuss has also remained active in the theater (Death And The Maiden 1992) and on TV. He returned to features in the adaptation of Neil Simon's play Lost in Yonkers (1993) and followed with a supporting turn as the querulous political opponent in The American President (1995). Dreyfuss received some of the best notices of his career as a determined, inspiring music teacher coping with a deaf son and the demands of his career in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995).
Trivia random: Son of Geraldine Dreyfuss.
Citazione random: In 1976: "People who commit adultery must die. Everyone knows that. Any movie tells you that!"
Salario massimo: $480/week, per American Graffiti (1973)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Clooney, George
Nome di battesimo: Clooney, George Timothy
Data di nascita: 6 May 1961
Altezza: 5' 11" (1.80 m)
Coniuge: Talia Balsam::(15 December 1989 - September 1993) (divorced)
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Born in Lexington, Kentucky, as son of Nick Clooney, a TV newscaster of many years, who hosted a talk show at Cincinnati and often invited George into the studios already at the age of 5. Avoiding competition with his father, he quit his job as broadcast journalist after a short time.Studied a few years at Northern Kentucky University. Failed to join the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. He came to acting when his cousin, Miguel Ferrer, got him a small part in a feature film. After that, he moved to L.A. in 1982 and tried a whole year to get a role while he slept in a friend's closet. His first movie, together with Charlie Sheen, stayed unreleased but got him the producers' attention for later contracts.
Trivia random: Suffered from Bell's palsy for a time while he was in high school.
Citazione random: Ninety percent of films are pretty mediocre, but they have a built-in audience and open on 3,000 screens.
Salario massimo: $20,000,000, per Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Fail-Safe (1964)
A prova di errore
Regista: Sidney Lumet Scrittore: Eugene Burdick,
Harvey Wheeler Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller, War
Valutazione: 8.0/10 (4982 voti)
Durata: 112 min
Paese: USA
Lingua: English
Cast:Trama:A technical malfunction in the Pentagon's strategic control system causes an erroneous order to be sent to a B-58 squadron on a routine training mission instructing the bombers to fly beyond their fail safe distance. At this point the flight crew are trained to cease communications and prepare to fulfill their objective by bombing Moscow. As the planes near their target, the crisis deepens and together the Americans and Soviets decide on a final, desperate solution.
Trivia random: Feature film debut of Fritz Weaver.
Citazione random: [last lines]::Brigadier General Warren A. Black: The Matador, the Matador... me... me
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Frears, Stephen
Data di nascita: 20 June 1941
Altezza: 5' 7" (1.70 m)
Coniuge: Anne Rothenstein::(1992 - present) 2 children, Mary-Kay Wilmers::(? - ?) (divorced) 2 children
Ultimi lavori: Trivia random: Won the The Empire Inspiration Award at the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards 2006
Citazione random: "There's one thing now that I experience every day when I'm making a film. I get up and think to myself, am I going to be able to do it today? I figure as long as I have that fear, I'll be alright."
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Fail Safe (2000) (TV)
A prova di errore
Regista: Stephen Frears Scrittore: Eugene Burdick,
Harvey Wheeler Genere: Drama, Thriller
Valutazione: 7.1/10 (2323 voti)
Durata: 86 min
Paese: USA
Lingua: English
Cast:Trama:Cold War tensions climb to a fever pitch when a U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered to drop a nuclear warhead on Moscow.
Trivia random: The big board depicting the bomber's position was designed to automatically compensate for the actors accidentally jumping ahead in the script.
Citazione random: Tommy Grady, Col. Grady's Son: Dad! How long is this one gonna be?::Col. Jack Grady, Command Pilot Group 6: Shouldn't be too late.::Tommy Grady, Col. Grady's Son: Are you sure?::Col. Jack Grady, Command Pilot Group 6: I'm positive.::Tommy Grady, Col. Grady's Son: Only fools are positive.::Col. Jack Grady, Command Pilot Group 6: Are you sure?::Tommy Grady, Col. Grady's Son: I'm positive.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Lumet, Sidney
Data di nascita: 25 June 1924
Altezza: 5' 5" (1.65 m)
Coniuge: Mary Gimbel::(1980 - present), Gail Lumet Buckley::(23 November 1963 - 1978) (divorced) 2 children, Gloria Vanderbilt::(27 August 1956 - 1963) (divorced), Rita Gam::(1949 - 1954) (divorced)
Ultimi lavori: Biografia:Though not as consistent as Martin Scorsese or Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet is nevertheless a master of cinema. Known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors--and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York--Lumet has made over 40 movies, often emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. He often tells intelligent, complex stories. Although his politics are somewhat left-leaning and he often treats socially relevant themes in his films, he doesn't want to make political movies in the first place, and some of them (Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Prince of the City (1981), Q & A (1990)) are atmospherically comparable to the gritty, intense films of Scorsese. Born on June 25, 1924, in Philadelphia, the son of actor Baruch Lumet and dancer Eugenia Wermus Lumet, he made his stage debut at age four at the Yiddish Art Theater in New York. He played many roles on Broadway in the 1930s (such as "Dead End"), and his acting debut in films came in One Third of a Nation (1939). In 1947 he started an off-Broadway acting troupe that included such future stars as Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, and other former members of Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio who had become unsatisfied with Strasberg's concepts. Lumet made his stage directing debut in 1955. However, he had been directing television shows since 1950, beginning at CBS, and soon became regarded as an important TV director. He piloted about 150 episodes of the crime series "Danger" (1950) and 26 episodes of "You Are There" (1953) (he was still directing successful TV teleplays as late as 1960, long after he had become an established film director). He made his feature film directing debut with the critical and financial hit 12 Angry Men (1957), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay, and is justly regarded as one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in film history. It takes place almost entirely in a jury room (in several Lumet films you can find the motif of the closed space). His second and third films, Stage Struck (1958) and That Kind of Woman (1959) respectively, are considered less important (I haven't seen them yet). Lumet directed Marlon Brando in the imperfect but very good The Fugitive Kind (1959), an underrated, financially unsuccessful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending". Afterwards he directed the French-Italian Arthur Miller adaptation Vu du pont (1961) ("A View From the Bridge"), which is considered a solid film (I haven't seen it as yet, either). The first half of the 1960s was one of Lumet's most artistically successful periods. Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), a masterful, brilliantly photographed adaptation of the Eugene ONeill play, is one of several Lumet films about families. It earned Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Dean Stockwell and Jason Robards deserved acting awards in Cannes and Hepburn an Oscar nomination. Lumet's next film, Fail-Safe (1964), a tense drama about the Cold War (a bit too America-centered for my taste), suffered a little in comparison to Stanley Kubrick's great, thematically equal satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), which was released shortly before. Afterwards Lumet directed the masterful drama The Pawnbroker (1964), about a Holocaust survivor who lives in New York and can't overcome his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. Rod Steiger's unforgettable performance in the title role earned an Academy Award nomination. Lumet's intense character study The Hill (1965), about inhumanity in a military prison camp, was expertly directed and featured superb performances by Sean Connery (with whom Lumet has made five films up to now) and Harry Andrews, among others. Lumet made the soapy, overly talky but watchable drama The Group (1966) about young upper-class women in the 1930s, and the good spy thriller The Deadly Affair (1966) (with a fine cast including James Mason, Maximilian Schell and Simone Signoret). The late 1960s was a rather unsuccessful time in Lumet's career. The comedy Bye Bye Braverman (1968) and the Anton Chekhov adaptation The Sea Gull (1968) got mixed reviews. The Appointment (1969) and Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970) were disappointing. Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed the Oscar-nominated documentary film King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) about Martin Luther King's civil-rights work in the Deep South. Lumet's The Anderson Tapes (1971) (starring Connery again), an unusual but satisfying caper movie, was a box-office hit. After the flop Child's Play (1972) Lumet directed the British film The Offence (1972), an interesting if somewhat slow-moving character study. Connery delivered a fine performance in this worthwhile but commercially unsuccessful movie. The terrific cop thriller Serpico (1973), the first of his films about police corruption in New York City, featured a fascinating Al Pacino and was the beginning of the most successful phase of Lumet's career. It was also one of his biggest critical and financial successes. Pacino won the Golden Globe, and the picture earned two Oscar nominations. After the less acclaimed Lovin' Molly (1974), Lumet's British adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1974) was another success, a very good, exquisitely photographed murder mystery with an all-star cast (including Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Connery and Ingrid Bergman). It earned six Oscar nominations, and Bergman won her third Academy Award. Then Lumet directed the hit Dog Day Afternoon (1975), a complex masterpiece about a bungled bank robbery in New York City. Pauline Kael called it "one of the best "New York" movies ever made." It starred a wonderful Al Pacino and earned six Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture, Director and Actor) and won the Academy Award for Frank Pierson's Original Screenplay. Lumet's following film is one of his most famous: the media satire Network (1976). It earned ten Academy Award nominations (including Picture and Director) and won in four categories (Best Actor for Peter Finch, Best Actress for Faye Dunaway, Best Original Screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky, Best Supporting Actress for Beatrice Straight). Lumet won the Golden Globe for his direction (he won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for his direction in Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Network (1976). Both pictures won LAFCA awards for Best Picture, too). Lumet's Equus (1977), an overly naturalistic adaptation of Peter Shaffer's stage play, earned Oscar nominations for Richard Burton and Peter Firth and for Shaffer's screenplay. The musical The Wiz (1978/I) earned four Oscar nominations, but was a critical and commercial misfire. The strange comedy Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) featured a fine Alan King performance and had funny moments, but was uneven overall. Lumet won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his terrific direction in Prince of the City (1981), one of his best and most typical films. It's about police corruption, but hardly a remake of Serpico (1973). Starring a powerful Treat Williams, it's an extraordinarily multi-layered film. In his highly informative book "Making Movies" (1995), Lumet describes the film in the following way: "When we try to control everything, everything winds up controlling us. Nothing is what it seems." It's also a movie about values, friendship and drug addiction and, like "Serpico", is based on a true story. It was adapted by Lumet himself and Jay Presson Allen from Robert Daley's book. Their screenplay earned an Academy Award nomination, and the picture, Lumet and Williams earned Golden Globe nominations. After his less important but entertaining thriller Deathtrap (1982) Lumet directed another masterful courtroom drama, The Verdict (1982), starring Paul Newman, James Mason, Jack Warden and Charlotte Rampling. The picture, Lumet, Newman, Mason and David Mamet's Adapted Screenplay earned well-deserved Academy Award nominations. The next in Lumet's filmography is the controversial drama Daniel (1983) with Timothy Hutton, an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's "The Book of Daniel" about two young people whose parents were executed during the McCarthy Red Scare hysteria in the 1950s for alleged espionage. I haven't seen the film yet, but Lumet writes in "Making Movies": "Despite its critical and financial failure, I think it's one of the best pictures I've ever done." After this film, though, Lumet's reputation fell a bit. The comedy Garbo Talks (1984), which I haven't seen up to now, is considered a watchable film. Power (1986) and The Morning After (1986) (which earned Jane Fonda an Oscar nomination) were too uneven and a little too pretentious to be successful. Then he made another real masterpiece: Running on Empty (1988). Although it is one of his lesser known films, I think it's his best one, and is thematically similar to "Daniel". Its story concerns a family on the run from the FBI, because the parents (played by Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) committed a bomb attack on a napalm laboratory in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam. The son (played by River Phoenix) gets into an inner conflict: he loves a girl (Martha Plimpton) and wishes to stay with her and study music, but that would destroy the family, and he knows that his parents need him. The film features magnificent performances by all the actors. Phoenix earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his extraordinarily moving performance. Lahti won the LAFCA award for her equally excellent interpretation. Naomi Foner's screenplay won the Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination. The film earned four other Golden Globe nominations as well (Picture, Director, Lahti and Phoenix). After the entertaining, well-acted, but still disappointing gangster comedy Family Business (1989) (with Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick) Lumet directed the underrated cop thriller Q & A (1990) with fine performances by Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Armand Assante and others. Though a bit overly constructed at times, it is still a very good and complex film about corruption and racism. In the beginning of the 1990s Lumet directed two unsatisfying films: A Stranger Among Us (1992), which is basically a variation on Peter Weir's Witness (1985) and not a particularly good one, and the rather sterile courtroom thriller Guilty as Sin (1993). However, he staged a comeback of sorts with his imperfect but fascinating crime drama Night Falls on Manhattan (1997), which is thematically similar to "Serpico", "Prince of the City" and "Q". In 1993 Lumet received the D.W. Griffith Award from the Directors Guild of America.
Trivia random: Directed 17 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Katharine Hepburn, Rod Steiger, Al Pacino, Ingrid Bergman, Albert Finney, Chris Sarandon, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Beatrice Straight, William Holden, Ned Beatty, Peter Firth, Richard Burton, Paul Newman, James Mason, Jane Fonda and River Phoenix. Bergman, Dunaway, Finch and Straight won oscars for their performances in one of Lumets movies.
Citazione random: There's no such thing as a small part. There are just small actors.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb. 
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