DVD & Blu-ray: FAIL SAFE (1964) Starring Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau

Product Description: 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.

"The Entertainment Factor is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission."

Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.

Click the links below to jump directly
to the selected section:

Movie Details

Available Formats (Purchasing Links)

Video

Audio

Subtitles

Special Features & Extras

Trailer and Clips

Pictures

MOVIE DETAILS

JUMP BACK TO TOP

Director: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Edward Binns

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Runtime: 112 min

Rating: Not Rated

Language: English

Studio: Criterion

Home Video Release Date: January 28, 2020

AVAILABLE FORMATS (click links to order from Amazon):

JUMP BACK TO TOP

DVD - Criterion

Blu-ray - Criterion

VIDEO

JUMP BACK TO TOP

DVD

Codec: MPEG-2
Resolution: 480i
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Encoding Format: 16:9
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)

Blu-ray

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Region: Region A/1

AUDIO

JUMP BACK TO TOP

Dubbed:

DVD: None
Blu-ray: None

Audio Formats:

DVD: Dolby Digital Mono
Blu-ray: LPCM Mono

SUBTITLES

JUMP BACK TO TOP

DVD: English SDH

Blu-ray: English SDH

SPECIAL FEATURES & EXTRAS

JUMP BACK TO TOP

Audio commentary from 2000 featuring director Sidney Lumet
New 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
PLUS: An essay by critic Bilge Ebiri