Harry's FAIL SAFE review & his report on Monday's on-set visit

Hey folks, Harry here. I've just finished watching the live performance of FAIL SAFE on CBS here at Geek Headquarters. And I'm happy to report that it came off rather wonderfully to my eyes.

The moment that worked best for me, was the final radio communication between Clooney and his son, whilst Cheadle and Grant were preparing to avaid the Nuclear Short Range Missle Attacks, whilst Dreyfuss pleaded, his son tearfully wanting to see his father again, Clooney's disbelief. That moment was particularly powerful for me.

It's strange really. Just 6 days ago I was on set, watching Dreyfuss trying to figure out... how he wanted to play the scene where he is going to tell the Russian leader that he was going to bomb New York. Should he be sitting, should he be standing. Should he close the door to the bathroom or leave it open. In the bathroom, should the angle of the camera come from where the toilet was or from where the shower was? Would the faucet work, would the camera be seen in the mirror? Noah Wyle wanted to hear the Russian only through his headset, Dreyfuss didn't need to hear any Russian at all.

All the voice-overs have to be played as if they were on camera because... at any minute, Frears, the director, could choose to go with the voice and not to those that were listening.

It's odd to sit there and to watch this Black & White digital photographed live image or sets that were color to me. That the phone that Dreyfuss speaks to the Russians on... That phone is BLUE, not the red that you feel it might be. That Blackie's wallpaper at his house was Green and off white. That the BIG BOARD was full of color, that those lights behind Dennehy's head, beneath the War Room Sky Box, that those lights were white. I've never been on a technicolor set that was photographed as Black & White. It feels a bit like Time Travel, albeit... without Moriarty's painful jelly beans or the odor of Mongo's feces.

The insert footage of planes flying, the rockets launching, of Time Square ala 1960's. All of that felt like insert footage from the old 60's Science Fiction, Big Monsters attacking movies. A bit cheesy, but also authentic. It's the way it really looks. I think that it was an odd choice to not try and make that footage feel of the same texture and grain of the live footage. That was a bit distracting, but not too much so for me.

Dramatically, the film worked for me. My least favorite performance was that of Harvey Keitel. He felt a bit flat, as though he was in a bit of a daze.... although given the situation, I wholeheartedly understand. I really loved Dreyfuss' President. It was a stark contrast with Henry Fonda's brilliant bug-eyed desperate President in the original.

Throughout the film, the lack of score kept me from force fed emotions. The silence after Dreyfuss' announcement of his intentions... That spoke volumes... In the silence I was able to reflect personally, instead of thinking... Wow... this is some great music. The hum of the War Room... the sound of the machines. Very Cool.

The Claustrophobic nature of the President's bunker... That ceiling... was lowering imperceptibly... making it tighter and tighter in that room. The idea was to create more Claustrophobia. If you notice, as the movie went on, the shots got tighter and tighter... till the shrill of the Telephone, when suddenly... all the shots were full pullbacks... The look of stunned people. My favorite was the Omaha War Room, there were all these men, standing looking at that big ol screen. And beside that table map, you could see the figure of Dennehy, bent over.... hands upon his knees.. breathing.

Now, the question is... Could the film have been better if it had been takes instead of live?

Well, we'll never know for sure. Perhaps that would have helped Keitel's performance... But Dreyfuss' performance was getting better and better and better. In fact, I dare say this is the best damn job Dreyfuss has done since his Roy Neary... decades ago. I haven't really been a big fan of Dreyfuss' since CLOSE ENCOUNTERS... I believe that to be his last great role. I really dug him tonight. He keeps making fairly shitty movies, cut rate comedies and sap pieces. I liked MR HOLLAND'S OPUS quite a bit, that was the last thing that I liked him in. But Dreyfuss should be playing powerful dramatic pieces. He is a great actor and one of the best performers we have in film. I just feel that he hasn't been being handed the really great scripts. I hope that changes. I sincerely do.

Clooney and Cheadle? Well, to be honest... in FAIL SAFE, their characters are masked (literally) and a great deal of their performances based entirely upon eyes and voice... No real body language to rely upon. Still though.... They did good work.

Now my favorite small role was Sam Elliot. The way he was gnawing on his lips. Sort of keeping from screaming about the insanity. Bottling his rage and other emotions. Overall, I felt the performances were really solid.

The camera work was more static than most everything we see in Television, but the pacing and editing was so well handled that I didn't feel it drag. In fact, when the one hour mark hit, Father Geek mentioned how he felt the show was flying. I had felt the show had been going on for only about half that time. Very strong work.

The last thing I'll talk about before leaving you tonight is... the reality involved in the film.

While on set watching Dreyfuss speaking and performing with Wyle... I had the pleasure to speak to an Al Buckles. This man has been and is currently still involved in America's Nuclear policy. He was in the Omaha War Room during the sixties, the Pentagon after that. He's retired from the military, but he is still involved on a daily basis regarding the Nuclear Military Policies. He took a leave of absence to advise on this film. Trying to help get as much of this right as possible.

I asked him about the Omaha War Room. The real one, in the sixties, had one long row of computer bank systems where the officers sat. Other than that, he felt it was very accurate. The sets were quite a bit different, however the steps and policies... the uniforms, the chain of commands... all of that was very realistic he told me.

Then I asked him about the scenario. How real is something like FAIL SAFE? Well, Al didn't chuckle or laugh. He doesn't think Nuclear strikes are particularly funny. But he did shake his head. He said that at no point in America's nuclear policy, was something controlled by a little black box. That, at all times.... even up to the minute the bombs are dropped from the planes... they can be recalled. There are codes and counter codes. Envelopes with bomb orders and envelopes with don't drop that bomb orders. This isn't gravity where once it goes up, it must come down... Planes can be sent and recalled. Missles fired and aborted. Is it perfect? Well... we'll see I suppose.

I asked Al Buckles what the mood was like in the Military when films like FAIL SAFE and DR STANGELOVE and WARGAMES came out? He said that they didn't really like the films. Not because of the anti-nuke policy, but that they felt the films pushed paranoia and distrust. He went on to say that the men in charge of America's nukes don't go to work each day eager to push the button or turn a key or destroy our enemy. They go to work prepared to do everything within their power to make sure that that doesn't have to happen. They sacrifice their own personal privacy. Friends filing reports upon friends. People watching to see if someone is drinking more than before. If they are taking drugs. If they are tired, have a tumor. If someone has died in their family. If they broke up with their wife or girlfriend. If they are having an affair. Anything and everything about these men is analyzed and watched. The systems checked and double checked and triple checked... daily. Al feels that some of the best men in the country are guarding and in charge of those weapons.

And then the irony of the situation hit me. Here I am, on the set of a television feature film with a decided NO NUKES policy and message. I'm the son of a hippie that beginning at the age of 3, was wearing NO NUKES t-shirts. I have long hair and a beard, and I'm talking in complete ease to.... THE MAN. This guy here. This Al Buckles. He's that bad guy that the counter-culture always pointed and shaked a fist at. He's one of the guys in the chain of Nuclear armageddon. And he's a pretty damn cool guy. He isn't hypertense. He doesn't look like an over-stressed crew cut monster. When speaking to him he didn't sound like a robot. He was eager to talk and debate. To discuss the fears of the unknown.

Of anyone in the world, Al Buckles knows how close we have come to WWIII. I talked to one person on set that said that Al almost began talking about 2 occassions where it got... really really tense. But then he said, "Oh yeah, that's classified." That's the scariest part. The weapons exist still. Films like FAIL SAFE and WARGAMES... while they don't entirely understand how the deployment of all this hellfire can commence or what problems, if there are any, do exist... they focus the attention on the fact that these weapons still exist. They offer up the conversation about... why we, the United States and Russia (ex-Soviet Union), have them. Is it important to have a doomsday device. Does it keep leaders level headed about war? Or does it supply an unnecessary tension upon the world and life?

This was the first of these types of Television events. Clooney has several properties that he'd like to do on television live. I have to say, that based upon this one, I'm really looking forward to what comes next. Will we get live television anthology dramas again? Will television begin offering up thoughtful dramatic events instead of bland greed based television game shows or thoughtless bad sit-coms? Who knows, but I really dug FAIL-SAFE... what did you think?