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

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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. 


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To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. 

For more from your hosts:

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Logo by Jason Christian 

Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). 

Happy listening!

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