This is one of the greatest movies of all time! I have never had the tension this high in any other movie. The best part, there is no music. Just a great movie!
It really is, isn't it? I just watched it again for the umpteenth time, and I still get tears in my eyes at some points, like when General Bogan is talking to his Russian counterpart, General Konev, and we all know that Konev's family is in Moscow. Or when Henry Fonda realizes that there's no turning back, and he's going to have to sacrifice his own family. Fail Safe really brought the human element into the cold war like no other film I know of.
Another of my fav movies of this era is The Bedford Incident. This is the first reaction of this great movie I have seen on YT. About the only way a nuke war can start is by a leader who cares nothing for his country and has nothing to lose, is cornered. Also, depending on technology which almost started WWIII like the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident.
Martin Balsam my not have been the star of that movie, but every time I see it he seems to take over as the best of that movie. Like Lee J. Cobb does in 12 Angry Men.
This is one of my favourite films! Rare to see someone react to it, so thank you for that. Amazing how it is completely devoid of a soundtrack. Adds to the realism. The "phone melting" shriek is unforgettable. I'm 54 and grew up in the 1980s. 1983 was probably the year we all believed the end of the World was going to happen. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States were at an all time high (since the Cuban Missile Crisis). So was the sheer amount of nuclear weapons between the two superpowers at over 70,000 warheads. President Reagan had made his "Evil Empire" speech and the Soviets had mistakenly shot down Korean Airlines flight 007. Fortunately preventing the destruction of the World took precedent over wiping out the "enemy." The threat of nuclear war is at its highest now since the Cold War ended... I'm a little more optimistic about the outcome than I was in the 80s though. Thank you again for your reaction.
Great review and closing comments by you. I never tire rewatching movies like Colossus: The Forbin Project, Fail-Safe and The Andromeda Strain. I would also like to suggest The Bedford Incident (1965.)
COLOSSUS As someone who started his military career during the Cold War, I have always considered this a favorite film. It serves both as a warning and as an example of what we must be prepared & dedicated to do if the day comes when we need to glass a country and turn it into a self-lighting parking lot.
I remember watching this a long time ago. Great film and a great reaction. Thanks Alexa Have you watched Dr Strangelove? If not that's a must for you.👍
COLOSSUS - - Thank you so much for watching & reviewing this powerful film. I loved your surprised reaction to seeing Larry Hagman in his pre-Jeannie role of the President's interpreter. About 15 years ago, I met Mr. Hagman at a Chiller Theatre celebrity autograph show in New Jersey, where he signed a paperback copy of the "Fail-Safe" novel for me.
Forbin! Colossus! Fail Safe is a message from the past to our present. Excellent film & performances. The live remake is also required viewing. Richard Dreyfus plays the president, it’s…sobering.
I remember being so excited back in 2000 when the live performance was broadcast. Great work by CBS-TV. What a pisser that I still can't find either version on DVD.
I am almost 60, I grew up in the Cold War. I well remeber thinking just about every day.."Is it today? Will the bombs fall today?" In the late 80s and the 90s I breathed a huge sigh of relief that fear was over. 20 years later...it's not over.
A few miles from the tract housing development where we lived, there was a large missile base with Nike antiaircraft missiles to shoot down Russian bombers in the event of a nuclear attack. These became obsolete with the development of ICBMs in the 60s.
Hello, I was just thinking about those situations of the 1950s - the 1989. Five or so years ago, we were being ridiculed as " Boomers ". The successive generations haven't lived with the active threat that within 30 minutes or less that their location in the U.S.A. was targeted for destruction should the politicians in Congress and the President fail. It was suggested that the location where I lived was targeted with five bombs. Therefore, no escape. Do you all remember " Duck & Cover! "? It would be more that scene in the " Terminator II ". I remember the discussions about the " Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ". I remember the " Cuban Missile Crisis ". Anyways, the successive generations have had it soft. The thirty minutes still remains. RUclips videos: 1) A Step Away From War (1986) 2) Paul Newman & Jack Shanahan VADM John Joseph “Jack” Shanahan Jr.
@@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710 I was a little too young for duck and cover, but my boyfriend grew up in that era... or maybe just in a more targeted area.. I'm not sure. But he remembers duck and cover drills in school very well, and he says that it was terrifying. I used to get knots in my stomach just during fire drills. I can't imagine what it would have been like if the adults were always telling us that someone might drop a bomb on us. And yet, I seem to remember they made a cutesie little song about it in the commercials. Which is probably appropriate when you consider how useless duck and cover would have been if a nuke had actually been dropped.
Oh and, Walter Matthau?!?!?!? Except for that hang dog expression who could believe that Dr. Groeteschele and Oscar Maddison was the same actor?!?!? Brilliant performacne! Again just an old film makers opinion.
As someone who has a background in tech, I can tell you that many of us don't exactly know how every part of a computer works. My friend is a programmer at Raytheon, ironically enough, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was working with code that's quite ancient. Imagine trying to sort through all that in a crisis scenario. Hoo boy!
I’m 70, and this movie terrified me as a child. I lived near NYC, and every jet I heard fly overhead I thought was a Russian bomber. And I lived near three major airports. Scarier than The Exorcist, and that’s saying something!
You must have been my neighbor! :-) I too am 70, grew up on Long Island not far from JFK airport, and remember vividly hallway drop and cover drills in elementary school. My parents dragged me along to the movies at age 11 to see this (prob because the sitter was busy that evening!), and I'll never forget it! Scared the living crap out of me! My BP goes up every time I watch scenes from the movie.
A very powerful, deeply unsettling film and a great reaction as ever. We all owe our very existence to a Soviet air defence controller called Stanislav Petrov. In 1987 his radar scope displayed a whole slew pf incoming US ICBMs. His duty was to immediately report such an event up the chain and God knows what would have happened next. He disobeyed his orders, believing the equipment to be having a glitch of some kind, and sure enough the radar blips disappeared a minute later. He was reprimanded by his superiors and demoted-all for saving planet Earth.
@@chrisgibbings9499 I'll raise a glass to the memory of comrade Petrov tonight. He had human intuition and that's something no artificial technology can ever replicate. Here's a quote from Isaac Asimov that sums things up very succinctly: the saddest aspect of life today is that science gathers knowledge faster than society garners wisdom.
About that time, the Soviets started to decorate soldiers for 'success not according to instructions', it happened in Afghanistan, because they needed heroes then, as now.
@@stevetheduck1425 That is really a step in the right direction. I had a feeling that the pilot knew, on some level, that it really was his wife talking to him. But his training was so deeply ingrained that he went ahead and followed orders. Although, put in the same situation, it would really be hard to know what to do, because they had specifically been warned that the Russians could attempt to imitate anyone, including the President. In some ways, although the 1964 original was by far the better movie, I think the 2000 remake set that scene up a little better by showing us the relationship between the pilot and his son and letting us in on their inside joke. Watching George Clooney telling his son that he loved him just before he turned off the radio and went ahead to drop the bombs was absolutely heartbreaking.
Saw this movie when ten years old. And this was in theaters two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Think you're the first to react to this film. Great reaction.
I was in elementary school in the 1950s. We had "surprise" drills during school hours. The drills involved what we would do if a nuclear war began with Soviet missiles and bombers attacking the U.S. "Duck and Cover" was the motto. We would duck under our desks, take a fetal body position and cover the backs of our necks with our clasped hands. There were Civil Defense signs on various buildings that would offer some protection. Many people constructed fallout shelters in their basements and stocked food and water. There were periodic test alerts on the three television networks. Anti-aircraft "Nike" missile sites were constructed and manned across the U.S. to protect large metropolitan areas. Being a young kid, my friends and I thought it was all quite exciting. The Soviet Union was the boogey-man or monster that kids nowadays have bad dreams about. Those days were a much different time than today for those who lived through it.
My favorite cold war movie quote used to be "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room!" Now it's "Especially, don't give them [computers] missiles!" Hahahahahahahaha! Thanks Alexa!
I am 74 and remember the cold war vividly. I don't think my family and most of my friend's family's were obsessed with the Russians bombing us although it did get close during the Cuban missle crisis. I did know one family that had a fall out shelter but it was used as a kids play house. I feel we are much closer today than back during the cold war. More nations have the bomb. Back then cooler heads prevailed. I am not so sure they would today. zombie apocalypse is fantasy. Nuclear war is reality. Duck and cover! Top notch cast all the way in this great movie !
4:12 Mark! Whoa! The movie is my age! 😮 I've read the novel. My high school had an old, plain gray hardcover book with black text on it. The softcover/paperback was made as a movie tie-in. I read both, and the only differences were the pictures and the publishing information. The actual story wasn't changed. As for the movie itself, I've seen the parody movie more often! "Doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"! Larry Hagman as played quite a few military characters! Even "JR Ewing" of "Dallas" was in the "Texas Army National Guard" while his younger brother, "Bobby Ewing" actually went to Vietnam! 😮
Colossus (but not The Forbin Project). I'm in the UK and I was a teen in the early 80's, my friends & I would talk about what we'd do if the 4-minute warning ever sounded (it takes ICBMs roughly 4 minutes from radar detection over the horizon to reaching their targets here). It was kinda matter-of-fact back then, but kinda scary to think back on now. The fear of nuclear war was prevalent in movies, music and TV. The album version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's song "Two Tribes" contains a pseudo-fictional post attack PSA. Sting's song "Russians" essentially pins our survival on whether the Russians love their children too. There was the UK TV show "Threads" and movies like "Dreamscape" (1984), "Wargames" (1983) and "The Terminator" (1984). (I'm not sure I'd recommend Threads, I think it was broadcast only once because it was so disturbing and harrowing. From what I remember it was very good and thought provoking, but not "pleasant" viewing). In many ways, the 80's was a dark time.
This looks good. I have a couple of suggestions of old movies if I may; Went the Day Well - 1942 A Matter of Life & Death (called Stairway to Heaven in America) - 1946
Alexa, remember our brains and nervous systems still have the wiring of hunter-gatherers. Neither is designed to operate flat-out for too long. Rest periods are vital at regular intervals and allow re-charging and re-balancing of our bodies. Take care of yourself and don't feel 'guilt' about what is an essential aspect of health. I re-watched this film a few weeks ago. The low budget is obvious, but the direction and performances are all first rate.
Thank you Alexa I'd not seen this movie before . My Dad was in the Royal Australian Airforce from 1950 to 1970 he was Mechanical Engineer or something like that he was stationed at where all the Nuclear ⚛ Bombs 💣 were tested at . Both the UK and the USA tested multiple bombs in the middle of Australia and in those places they will remain radioactive for thousands of years . That ufo series wasn't too off the mark sorta except the Aliens . It's scary how we as a species are giving drones full autonomous so the ai can do things a human may not do , I like technology but to a point I kid you not sometimes I've been 🤔 about buying something online and lo and behold the exact specific item pops up . I really hope we don't go boom imagine being a part of a movie that tech is about 5 years away . Here's the thing we've had really high tech for ages but the powers that be only drip feed the general population I've waffled too long bye for now Alexa The super Secret for my eyes 👀 only codeword is " Colossus "
Your point about a series of failures resulting in disaster is accurate. Almost every plane crash, industrial accident and construction disaster has a few elements that are the same. 'Erosion of safety standards'. It hasn't failed so we can run it a little harder / not grease that screw-jack / just put it back in service, there's nothing wrong with it. 'We don't need the triple check, because nothing was wrong after the double check'. Essentially the same as the first one. 'That's too expensive, and government contracts go to the lowest bidder'. Failure just became much, much more likely.
A colossus of a review. In college in the mid 70's, I took a course called "The Anatomy of Peaceful Change." At that time, it was a very exclusive group of nations that had access to nuclear weapons. What these nations had in common was that they would have far more to lose in a nuclear war than they had to gain. The course touched on "threat level nations." Today I would amend that to include "threat level organizations." Imagine the people of Gaza who are being bombed into extinction being suddenly handed the control of a stockpile of nuclear weapons. What would they lose by threatening other countries with them? The threat would have the weight behind it of "nothing to lose." So when we were most concerned about nuclear war, we were the least in danger of it. Now any person or group that doesn't give a damn about anyone else or future generations or even living through the week who got their hands on a nuclear weapon would be an incredible threat.
2:48 Mark! Yay, I'm back with a new smartphone and I'm now trying to catch up on everything that I've been missing out on! 🎉 Now the jets shown are.... Quote: The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. End quote. I used to have a toy version made of "Styrofoam" that was meant to be hand-tossed into the air and glide! Mine did so until it crashed and broke its nose! It never flew right afterwards. 😮
COLOSSUS I've never seen Fail Safe before. What a great movie, I'll have to watch it in full now. Thanks for introducing me to it. Now I want to pull out some of my 80s DVDs after watching this: WarGames (1983) Project X (1987) Miracle Mile (1988)
It's an amazing film, impossibly stress-inducing and it captures the true essence of drama: every single character is doing what they should to the best of their ability, and the end result is a disaster. Also, congratulations for understanding something critical: you don't have a disaster when something goes wrong because people are smart and they design things assuming they will break and fail. You have a disaster when two or more things go wrong. Still, being who I am, there's three things I need to say: 1) Despite the title, the system described is not "Fail Safe." It is "Fail and Everyone dies." 2) The real nuclear command structure is probably very different from what's described here, but the real structure is very classified so no criticism is implied. 3) The B-58 is correctly shown to have a crew of three, but these men sit behind one another in seperate cockpits and cannot interact except through an intercom.
"every single character is doing what they should to the best of their ability" Absolutely, and I would add that they are all trying to do the "right thing" but there is definitely a lot of disagreement as to what the "right thing" is. I think the most fascinating conflict is the one between General Bogan and Col. Cascio. One of them is trying to look at the big picture, and the other is more focused on individual lives. And of course, they also have different opinions about what the Soviets are up to. It makes for some riveting drama, that's for sure.
Pure, amazing acting. No blood, no special effects. Yet one of the most terrifying movies you’ll ever see. It seems Hollywood has forgotten the recipe for truly great filmmaking and storytelling.
A short film, regarding the making of this movie showed how there is no credit, thanking the department of defense for its cooperation and making of this film. Someone in that department later stated they wanted nothing to do with this movie because it was too similar to what they projected could happen
Remember watching this on TV around 1970. Human nature hasn't changed that much in 50 years, although with the current love of AI, some people are less educated than we were or are.
Very good reaction, Alexa. I'm older and so recall the cold war very well. They actually screened this film for us at school. In any event, I recommend The Bedford Incident 1964, and Virus-1980 version for future reactions. It's based on a novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler.
Fantastic reaction, Alexa!! When I was in junior high school in the early 60s we had atomic bomb drills and we watched films on what to do in case an attack happens: duck and cover!!! Colossus.
5:25 Mark! Yep! Before civilians took the term "UFO" and abused it to death, to the military, they had their "Identified Flying Objects" and their "Unidentified Flying Objects"! They relatively recently officially replaced "UFO" with a new acronym that they hope civilians will ignore and not misuse it too! 😮
Thank you Alexa for reacting to this film. It came out the same year as Doctor Strangelove but was very overshadowed by it. One is a comedy and the other, as you said "very tense". Hard to believe this film is 60 years old and is just as relevant as today. Great acting and dialogue. Henry Fonda played the President we'd all love to have. And yes, Larry Hagman was so young. I could see the tension and emotion on your face. And you still find a way to interject some humor into the reaction of such a serious movie. Bravisimo! I highly recommend another great film from the same year; Seven Days in May. Thanks a bunch 😊
I think it would have been better if Doctor Strangelove had come out after Fail Safe instead of before. After all, it is basically a spoof of the concepts in Fail Safe, and once you've seen the spoof, why see the real thing? Or at least I guess that's what most moviegoers were thinking. Either that, or they went to the theaters expecting something along the same lines as Doctor Strangelove and were disappointed. I don't know why though. It's a great standalone movie. The same thing happened with MASH overshadowing Catch-22. I thought Catch was by far the better movie (although I know a lot of people would disagree with me), but it didn't do well at the box office, because it came out shortly after MASH.
Hi Alexa, I grew up during the Cold War. Because of my interest in military history I was aware of the tensions between East and West even at a very young age. I was about 10 years old when I saw Fail Safe. I became even more paranoid after seeing it. Alexa, if you google for the book Gaslight Compendium, I did the bookcover art of a Victorian sci-fi land battleship fighting a T-Rex. The name of the artwork and land battleship is COLOSSUS……
@@alexachipman Thank you, Alexa. Grew up reading H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I was beyond excited when I got the commission for a ‘wrap around’ bookcover. I created a second vehicle for the back cover, a Mississippi paddlewheeler Steamboat that can come out of the river and run on land. I named it The Crocodile.
5:01 Mark! Hmm. Nice! 😊 But remember that in 1964, not only were there people still alive that saw what happened to Japan during WW2, but because the Cold War was on-going, so were bomb tests! Near Las Vegas, Nevada, tourists could sit on bleachers and see the mushroom clouds and react to them as if they were at a fireworks show! School children practiced "Duck and Cover Drills" too, not just fire drills or storm drills. So the doom was fresh on the minds of those that were aware it existed. 🤔 Isolated tribes wouldn't have been.
4:12 Mark! Heh! With WW2, we used two against Imperial Japan, but that doesn't qualify as a "limited exchange" because they lacked their own atomic bombs to exchange with us. People feared that as long as we had the exclusive monopoly that we might use them again, environment be damned, whenever there was a "big threat"! So those people felt safer with M.A.D. in place to keep us in check. While others only felt safe when we had the monopoly. 😮 As a registered Independent, I'm not going to say how party lines would chose which belief they had. 🤔🤷
One of many of Fonda's greatest films. Like Angry Men must took place in one room and was basically about people and emotions. Thank you for the Forbin reference, you have an eye for good film. Many of the films of this time are hidden gems, like my favorite Ten Little Indians, try it lets see how if can figure it out.
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct 1962), an over-stressed American Air-force Major, based in the American nuclear missile station at Okinawa, finally cracked and thought he would solve the crisis by giving the order to launch all seven of the MGM-13 Mace nuclear missiles under his command. The fact that the missiles were aimed at China and not Russia did not seem to interfere with his calculations. The order was accepted by the launch crew who had trained for many years to carry out a missile launch, without question, but was deemed as not authentic by the second duty officer, who had to instantly send armed guards to the launch control room to terminate the launch. The launch was halted with just two minutes to spare. It is not known if the missiles could have been terminated after launch, but if the missiles had hit all their targets then tens of millions of innocent Chinese people would have been killed. China was not a nuclear power at this time. The major who gave the launch order was quietly court-marshalled and dismissed from the army and records of the event were suppressed for many decades.
Good God!! Perhaps this is where Kubrick got his idea for Dr Strangelove from. Another incident that isn't widely known is the accidental dropping of an atomic bomb on Kansas from a B 52. Fortunately it wasn't armed so therefore didn't detonate but bloody hell!! Oh yes! I forgot! There's a hydrogen bomb at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea from another accident. It's been sitting there 40 or 50 years waiting.....
Haven't seen this one for 30 years or so though I've always known of it. Glad you've seen it and interesting and sharp reactions from you once again. All-star cast of its time with Henry Fonda as president etc. Top director Sidney Lumet; he could knock out quality films in fairly quick succession which is an unusual combination for even good film directors. I've just been groaning in horror at all the spoilers you've had on this page for other films. Very frustrating as there's one in particular I'd like to see you comment on.
Watching movies from the ‘60s, I’ve been struck by how many show tragedy arising out of simple mistakes or misunderstandings. There really seemed to be something in the Zeitgeist at the time. (I’d give examples but I want to avoid potential spoilers.)
I was 12 years old when the Cuban Missile Crisis came about. That was enough to scare the pants off everyone as we sat and heard JFK on television that night. I suggest you watch, The Day After.
This movie always convinces me that right now, we are better off with the Three Stooges in charge than what we have offered to us. Don't you recognize the great Henry Fonda? Dom Deluise as Master Sergeant Collins, USAF... he was normally a well known comedian and comic actor. he was the fisherman talking to Kermit the Frog at the beginning of the Muppet Movie.
At 3:40 of the video you joked about UFOs. In the military context of the 1950s & 60s that did NOT mean some sort of alien, but rather a aircraft WITHOUT a transponder in an area where one was NOT supposed to be. During that time UFOs were considered to be likely Soviet spy planes or attempts to probe for weak spots in the defense radars.
Yes I know, but I literally have a channel about the show UFO :) it is kind of my thing! You were just not in the target audience of my overlap Gerry Anderson fans.
@@alexachipman Actually I may be. I have watched many of the Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, and Space 1999. I will have to check out your other website on YT.
One danger of artificial intelligence, is when it's used to interpret the activities of other nations, especially those that have nuclear weapons. One may say that it's too dangerous to do that, but if a potential enemy starts to use it, then we may feel forced to use it to predict what the enemy's A.I. is telling them about any danger it thinks we pose. Then the problem is: what if their A.I. or our A.I. says the signs are the other side is preparing a first strike, so beat them to it by launching immediately to take out their missiles before they have a chance to launch them. What if that is what our potential enemy's A.I. is telling them about us, and we don't even know it. And the thing is, A.I. has reached its conclusion by examining vast amounts of data, too much data for people to examine to see if A.I. has made a mistake. It's trust A.I. and strike first or hope A.I. is wrong and sit on your hands.
I just picked this as a more current reaction in which to make a suggestion. I have always been a fan of science fiction but grew up when TV was mostly full of westerns. I thought that seeing any more westerns would be sickening before I made a list of westerns and remembered that there were many series I just thought of as excellent stories rather than categorizing them as westerns (which they were). One series that I didn't give a chance until a few years ago was "Have Gun, Will Travel." A show about a hired gunman sounds like the last thing I would want to watch. But I had heard that one of the main writers was Gene Roddenbery so that made me curious. It turns out that the gunfighter is highly educated and highly cultured. He prefers settling matters with his brain but he can handle a gun and hand to hand contact if he has to. He is like a Scarlet Pimpernel (I hope you have seen that movie to know the reference) in the sense of having a double life although he doesn't keep his duel identity a secret. It is an addicting show. I didn't realize until I had seen the entire series that my Mother not only knew about the series but was smitten with the character. I think if you start watching it for Roddenbery's writing, you'll end up getting hooked. Another suggestion is to check into the work of another writer. I kept seeing his name and thought it had to be a pseudonym, but now I am pretty sure that he was born with it. Stirling Silliphant wrote for the series Naked City and Route 66. Naked City really took people into the streets of New York City. Route 66 told local stories where the episodes were actually filmed. Silliphant went on to basically create the format for disaster movies and wrote at least one famous horror movie. Still another series which still is one of the most liberated women's roles ever was "Decoy" which was like the female version of Dragnet.
@@alexachipman Something that really sticks with me is an episode where Paladin is hired to get 3 gunmen to leave a town. Each hired gun has been brought in by a different banker to run the town for them and instead the gunmen teamed up and took control. Paladin did a discourse on how Rome came to control the Holy Lands in the time of Christ - how they had been invited in to police the nation. I was shocked that I was learning this from a show that was presumably about fast draw gunmen fighting it out.
24:32 Mark! Thumb Up #44! 👍 You're welcome, and thanks! 😊 Notes: A very nice commentary review! 👌 Was that one insert from the series "UFO"? 🤔 "Colossus"? Is that the name of a mainframe computer in this movie or a reference another movie, "Colossus: The Forbin Project"? 🤔
@alexachipman ! Hi! Thanks! I checked out your playlist, and I saw that you have seen a lot since last time, including that movie! Your insert included a talking satellite and a flying saucer.
I grew up in the Cold War, 1950s - 60s. Every day at noon the air raid siren in our town was tested. Some of our wealthy neighbors built "fallout shelters", bunkers under their houses. In most schools children had to practice "duck and cover" drills, where they bent under their desks in case of nuclear attack. My public elementary school instead had underground tunnels. We had regular air raid drills in which the children filed down into the tunnels. My parents were pacifists (as am I) and refused the school permission for me to take part in war drills. I went to the principal's office instead.
Wow.... I love what your parents did. Imagine if we all refused to live in fear, what a difference that would make on an energetic level. I think the kind of hysteria created by programs like duck and cover just condition kids (and adults) to expect the worst, and that's not very conducive to peace.
There's a philosophical question known as 'the Prisoner's Dilemma'. It can be interpreted as meaning no action to be taken is the best choice. Applied to nuclear weapons, it seems at least some of the leaders of nuclear nations have the brains or cunning to realise that. I worry about some of the nuts we've had at the reins of power recently. They don't know about this period of history, they didn't miss a meal, or go bed frightened in all their lives, except when being voted out of power. No wonder they hate democracy. The don't know anything about it, nor how we escaped the end of civilisation. Sometimes I wonder if I'll get to finish my next sentence...
Did you watch all the way to the end of the closing credits? People tend not to do that and they miss some interesting things. I'm not going to spoil them by saying which other movies this would apply to.
I think maybe they pushed it a bit too far by having the bomber commander not believe his own wife. I don't know if the Russians truly had voice impersonators, but it would surely have been limited to a very small number of people. It's not plausible they were prepared with convincing impersonators for all (or really any) bomber commanders.
"Equivalent conversation"...well, no, not exactly. A Zombie Apocalypse is a fantasy situation. Thermonuclear weapons not only still exist but are actually more numerous now than 60 years ago with fewer people having enough moral guardrails against their use.
Okay, so here's an irony. I posted something that minutes later made me think "could that be considered a spoiler? Y'know, better go delete it to be sure". But, I couldn't get back here fast enough, because my computer is a clunky old piece of junk that decided right then to sputter and choke for 2 whole minutes. And the post was pruned before I could do it myself. I'm probably in trouble now. I'm the fighter pilot trying to shoot down the bomber.
COLOSSUS: You might find this actual event interesting. youtu.be/ZGsrO3klc As someone who worked with Special Weapons in the 1980s I can tell you there have been close calls with the Soviet Union both nuclear and non nuclear.
This is one of the greatest movies of all time! I have never had the tension this high in any other movie.
The best part, there is no music. Just a great movie!
It really is, isn't it? I just watched it again for the umpteenth time, and I still get tears in my eyes at some points, like when General Bogan is talking to his Russian counterpart, General Konev, and we all know that Konev's family is in Moscow. Or when Henry Fonda realizes that there's no turning back, and he's going to have to sacrifice his own family. Fail Safe really brought the human element into the cold war like no other film I know of.
Another of my fav movies of this era is The Bedford Incident. This is the first reaction of this great movie I have seen on YT. About the only way a nuke war can start is by a leader who cares nothing for his country and has nothing to lose, is cornered. Also, depending on technology which almost started WWIII like the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident.
Martin Balsam my not have been the star of that movie, but every time I see it he seems to take over as the best of that movie. Like Lee J. Cobb does in 12 Angry Men.
It is one of my favorite movies!
This is one of my favourite films! Rare to see someone react to it, so thank you for that.
Amazing how it is completely devoid of a soundtrack. Adds to the realism. The "phone melting" shriek is unforgettable.
I'm 54 and grew up in the 1980s. 1983 was probably the year we all believed the end of the World was going to happen. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States were at an all time high (since the Cuban Missile Crisis). So was the sheer amount of nuclear weapons between the two superpowers at over 70,000 warheads. President Reagan had made his "Evil Empire" speech and the Soviets had mistakenly shot down Korean Airlines flight 007.
Fortunately preventing the destruction of the World took precedent over wiping out the "enemy."
The threat of nuclear war is at its highest now since the Cold War ended... I'm a little more optimistic about the outcome than I was in the 80s though.
Thank you again for your reaction.
Great review and closing comments by you. I never tire rewatching movies like Colossus: The Forbin Project, Fail-Safe and The Andromeda Strain.
I would also like to suggest The Bedford Incident (1965.)
I find it great that someone else out there knows about Colossus: The Forbin Project. It was Skynet before Skynet.
11:15, for its time, the effort of casting a Russian speaker so accurate in grammar and accent is extraordinary.
COLOSSUS
As someone who started his military career during the Cold War, I have always considered this a favorite film.
It serves both as a warning and as an example of what we must be prepared & dedicated to do if the day comes when we need to glass a country and turn it into a self-lighting parking lot.
I remember watching this a long time ago. Great film and a great reaction. Thanks Alexa
Have you watched Dr Strangelove? If not that's a must for you.👍
COLOSSUS - - Thank you so much for watching & reviewing this powerful film. I loved your surprised reaction to seeing Larry Hagman in his pre-Jeannie role of the President's interpreter. About 15 years ago, I met Mr. Hagman at a Chiller Theatre celebrity autograph show in New Jersey, where he signed a paperback copy of the "Fail-Safe" novel for me.
Forbin! Colossus! Fail Safe is a message from the past to our present. Excellent film & performances. The live remake is also required viewing. Richard Dreyfus plays the president, it’s…sobering.
I remember being so excited back in 2000 when the live performance was broadcast. Great work by CBS-TV. What a pisser that I still can't find either version on DVD.
I am almost 60, I grew up in the Cold War. I well remeber thinking just about every day.."Is it today? Will the bombs fall today?" In the late 80s and the 90s I breathed a huge sigh of relief that fear was over. 20 years later...it's not over.
I am of similar age and yes remember being told my home city was a prime target,
A few miles from the tract housing development where we lived, there was a large missile base with Nike antiaircraft missiles to shoot down Russian bombers in the event of a nuclear attack. These became obsolete with the development of ICBMs in the 60s.
Hello, I was just thinking about those situations of the 1950s - the 1989. Five or so years ago, we were being ridiculed as " Boomers ". The successive generations haven't lived with the active threat that within 30 minutes or less that their location in the U.S.A. was targeted for destruction should the politicians in Congress and the President fail. It was suggested that the location where I lived was targeted with five bombs. Therefore, no escape. Do you all remember " Duck & Cover! "? It would be more that scene in the " Terminator II ". I remember the discussions about the " Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ". I remember the " Cuban Missile Crisis ". Anyways, the successive generations have had it soft. The thirty minutes still remains.
RUclips videos: 1) A Step Away From War (1986) 2) Paul Newman & Jack Shanahan
VADM John Joseph “Jack” Shanahan Jr.
@@clutchpedalreturnsprg7710 I was a little too young for duck and cover, but my boyfriend grew up in that era... or maybe just in a more targeted area.. I'm not sure. But he remembers duck and cover drills in school very well, and he says that it was terrifying. I used to get knots in my stomach just during fire drills. I can't imagine what it would have been like if the adults were always telling us that someone might drop a bomb on us. And yet, I seem to remember they made a cutesie little song about it in the commercials. Which is probably appropriate when you consider how useless duck and cover would have been if a nuke had actually been dropped.
Colossus! This is such an important film which every generation needs to see, it should be mandatory viewing in my opinion.
Since you've seen this, I strongly suggest that you watch:
📍Doctor Strangelove (1964)
Good recommendation
Oh and, Walter Matthau?!?!?!? Except for that hang dog expression who could believe that Dr. Groeteschele and Oscar Maddison was the same actor?!?!? Brilliant performacne! Again just an old film makers opinion.
"Oscar" should have gotten an Oscar
As someone who has a background in tech, I can tell you that many of us don't exactly know how every part of a computer works. My friend is a programmer at Raytheon, ironically enough, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was working with code that's quite ancient. Imagine trying to sort through all that in a crisis scenario. Hoo boy!
Empathy and compassion. The best of us.
I read this book as a teenager. The movie is very true to the novel. I was so surprised to see Kubrick's contrasting take.
Colossus, and your final statements were right on point.
I’m 70, and this movie terrified me as a child. I lived near NYC, and every jet I heard fly overhead I thought was a Russian bomber. And I lived near three major airports. Scarier than The Exorcist, and that’s saying something!
You must have been my neighbor! :-) I too am 70, grew up on Long Island not far from JFK airport, and remember vividly hallway drop and cover drills in elementary school. My parents dragged me along to the movies at age 11 to see this (prob because the sitter was busy that evening!), and I'll never forget it! Scared the living crap out of me! My BP goes up every time I watch scenes from the movie.
A very powerful, deeply unsettling film and a great reaction as ever.
We all owe our very existence to a Soviet air defence controller called Stanislav Petrov. In 1987 his radar scope displayed a whole slew pf incoming US ICBMs. His duty was to immediately report such an event up the chain and God knows what would have happened next.
He disobeyed his orders, believing the equipment to be having a glitch of some kind, and sure enough the radar blips disappeared a minute later. He was reprimanded by his superiors and demoted-all for saving planet Earth.
Very important story. Thanks for reminding us of it. It was actually 1983, not 1987, though.
@@chrisgibbings9499 I'll raise a glass to the memory of comrade Petrov tonight.
He had human intuition and that's something no artificial technology can ever replicate. Here's a quote from Isaac Asimov that sums things up very succinctly:
the saddest aspect of life today is that science gathers knowledge faster than society garners wisdom.
@@escapetheratracenow9883 Yes. Mind you, I think a fair amount of people have pointed that one out.
About that time, the Soviets started to decorate soldiers for 'success not according to instructions', it happened in Afghanistan, because they needed heroes then, as now.
@@stevetheduck1425 That is really a step in the right direction. I had a feeling that the pilot knew, on some level, that it really was his wife talking to him. But his training was so deeply ingrained that he went ahead and followed orders. Although, put in the same situation, it would really be hard to know what to do, because they had specifically been warned that the Russians could attempt to imitate anyone, including the President. In some ways, although the 1964 original was by far the better movie, I think the 2000 remake set that scene up a little better by showing us the relationship between the pilot and his son and letting us in on their inside joke. Watching George Clooney telling his son that he loved him just before he turned off the radio and went ahead to drop the bombs was absolutely heartbreaking.
Saw this movie when ten years old. And this was in theaters two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Think you're the first to react to this film. Great reaction.
I was in elementary school in the 1950s. We had "surprise" drills during school hours. The drills involved what we would do if a nuclear war began with Soviet missiles and bombers attacking the U.S. "Duck and Cover" was the motto. We would duck under our desks, take a fetal body position and cover the backs of our necks with our clasped hands. There were Civil Defense signs on various buildings that would offer some protection. Many people constructed fallout shelters in their basements and stocked food and water. There were periodic test alerts on the three television networks. Anti-aircraft "Nike" missile sites were constructed and manned across the U.S. to protect large metropolitan areas. Being a young kid, my friends and I thought it was all quite exciting. The Soviet Union was the boogey-man or monster that kids nowadays have bad dreams about. Those days were a much different time than today for those who lived through it.
Indeed, I used to be a museum docent near one of the Nike missile sites.
I wish’s more reactors would watch this movie. ❤ Colossus.
I also H|IGHLY RECOMMEND The Bedford Incident. And a film from the 80s called Miracle Mile
I recommend Miracle Mile too.
Miracle mile (1988)
is one of my favorites
My favorite cold war movie quote used to be "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room!" Now it's "Especially, don't give them [computers] missiles!" Hahahahahahahaha! Thanks Alexa!
Dr. Strangelove, I presume.
I am 74 and remember the cold war vividly. I don't think my family and most of my friend's family's were obsessed with the Russians bombing us although it did get close during the Cuban missle crisis. I did know one family that had a fall out shelter but it was used as a kids play house. I feel we are much closer today than back during the cold war. More nations have the bomb. Back then cooler heads prevailed. I am not so sure they would today.
zombie apocalypse is fantasy. Nuclear war is reality. Duck and cover! Top notch cast all the way in this great movie !
4:12 Mark! Whoa! The movie is my age! 😮 I've read the novel. My high school had an old, plain gray hardcover book with black text on it. The softcover/paperback was made as a movie tie-in. I read both, and the only differences were the pictures and the publishing information. The actual story wasn't changed.
As for the movie itself, I've seen the parody movie more often! "Doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"!
Larry Hagman as played quite a few military characters! Even "JR Ewing" of "Dallas" was in the "Texas Army National Guard" while his younger brother, "Bobby Ewing" actually went to Vietnam! 😮
Wonderful reaction. Fail Safe is one of my favorite films. Such great acting!
Colossus (but not The Forbin Project).
I'm in the UK and I was a teen in the early 80's, my friends & I would talk about what we'd do if the 4-minute warning ever sounded (it takes ICBMs roughly 4 minutes from radar detection over the horizon to reaching their targets here).
It was kinda matter-of-fact back then, but kinda scary to think back on now.
The fear of nuclear war was prevalent in movies, music and TV.
The album version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's song "Two Tribes" contains a pseudo-fictional post attack PSA.
Sting's song "Russians" essentially pins our survival on whether the Russians love their children too.
There was the UK TV show "Threads" and movies like "Dreamscape" (1984), "Wargames" (1983) and "The Terminator" (1984).
(I'm not sure I'd recommend Threads, I think it was broadcast only once because it was so disturbing and harrowing. From what I remember it was very good and thought provoking, but not "pleasant" viewing).
In many ways, the 80's was a dark time.
This looks good. I have a couple of suggestions of old movies if I may;
Went the Day Well - 1942
A Matter of Life & Death (called Stairway to Heaven in America) - 1946
I have been combing the web for Matter of Life and Death for YEARS now it is so frustrating that there isn’t a streaming copy available
Sorry to hear that Bud.
An excellent review. Thank you. From a Cold War Baby of 67 yrs.
Alexa, remember our brains and nervous systems still have the wiring of hunter-gatherers. Neither is designed to operate flat-out for too long. Rest periods are vital at regular intervals and allow re-charging and re-balancing of our bodies. Take care of yourself and don't feel 'guilt' about what is an essential aspect of health. I re-watched this film a few weeks ago. The low budget is obvious, but the direction and performances are all first rate.
Thank you for all you do, Do not stop what you do....
Thank you Alexa I'd not seen this movie before . My Dad was in the Royal Australian Airforce from 1950 to 1970 he was Mechanical Engineer or something like that he was stationed at where all the Nuclear ⚛ Bombs 💣 were tested at . Both the UK and the USA tested multiple bombs in the middle of Australia and in those places they will remain radioactive for thousands of years . That ufo series wasn't too off the mark sorta except the Aliens . It's scary how we as a species are giving drones full autonomous so the ai can do things a human may not do , I like technology but to a point I kid you not sometimes I've been 🤔 about buying something online and lo and behold the exact specific item pops up . I really hope we don't go boom imagine being a part of a movie that tech is about 5 years away . Here's the thing we've had really high tech for ages but the powers that be only drip feed the general population I've waffled too long bye for now Alexa
The super Secret for my eyes 👀 only codeword is " Colossus "
Your point about a series of failures resulting in disaster is accurate.
Almost every plane crash, industrial accident and construction disaster has a few elements that are the same.
'Erosion of safety standards'. It hasn't failed so we can run it a little harder / not grease that screw-jack / just put it back in service, there's nothing wrong with it.
'We don't need the triple check, because nothing was wrong after the double check'. Essentially the same as the first one.
'That's too expensive, and government contracts go to the lowest bidder'. Failure just became much, much more likely.
A colossus of a review. In college in the mid 70's, I took a course called "The Anatomy of Peaceful Change." At that time, it was a very exclusive group of nations that had access to nuclear weapons. What these nations had in common was that they would have far more to lose in a nuclear war than they had to gain. The course touched on "threat level nations." Today I would amend that to include "threat level organizations." Imagine the people of Gaza who are being bombed into extinction being suddenly handed the control of a stockpile of nuclear weapons. What would they lose by threatening other countries with them? The threat would have the weight behind it of "nothing to lose." So when we were most concerned about nuclear war, we were the least in danger of it. Now any person or group that doesn't give a damn about anyone else or future generations or even living through the week who got their hands on a nuclear weapon would be an incredible threat.
2:48 Mark! Yay, I'm back with a new smartphone and I'm now trying to catch up on everything that I've been missing out on! 🎉
Now the jets shown are....
Quote:
The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight.
End quote.
I used to have a toy version made of "Styrofoam" that was meant to be hand-tossed into the air and glide! Mine did so until it crashed and broke its nose! It never flew right afterwards. 😮
COLOSSUS
I've never seen Fail Safe before. What a great movie, I'll have to watch it in full now. Thanks for introducing me to it.
Now I want to pull out some of my 80s DVDs after watching this:
WarGames (1983)
Project X (1987)
Miracle Mile (1988)
It's an amazing film, impossibly stress-inducing and it captures the true essence of drama: every single character is doing what they should to the best of their ability, and the end result is a disaster. Also, congratulations for understanding something critical: you don't have a disaster when something goes wrong because people are smart and they design things assuming they will break and fail. You have a disaster when two or more things go wrong.
Still, being who I am, there's three things I need to say:
1) Despite the title, the system described is not "Fail Safe." It is "Fail and Everyone dies."
2) The real nuclear command structure is probably very different from what's described here, but the real structure is very classified so no criticism is implied.
3) The B-58 is correctly shown to have a crew of three, but these men sit behind one another in seperate cockpits and cannot interact except through an intercom.
"every single character is doing what they should to the best of their ability" Absolutely, and I would add that they are all trying to do the "right thing" but there is definitely a lot of disagreement as to what the "right thing" is. I think the most fascinating conflict is the one between General Bogan and Col. Cascio. One of them is trying to look at the big picture, and the other is more focused on individual lives. And of course, they also have different opinions about what the Soviets are up to. It makes for some riveting drama, that's for sure.
From my perspective, the bad decision isn't giving the computers the power. It's maintaining the existence of weapons which can destroy civilization.
Sidney Lumet made so many fabulous movies, this and 12 Angry Men are 2 of my favorites and he made both! Colossus!
You should watch the bedford incident.
Pure, amazing acting. No blood, no special effects. Yet one of the most terrifying movies you’ll ever see. It seems Hollywood has forgotten the recipe for truly great filmmaking and storytelling.
There still are movies like this, I see them as a critic, but they are shoved into theater 20 with one showing a day and nobody sees them.
First time finding your channel.Thank you for your thoughtful review.I'll be back.
Welcome!
A short film, regarding the making of this movie showed how there is no credit, thanking the department of defense for its cooperation and making of this film. Someone in that department later stated they wanted nothing to do with this movie because it was too similar to what they projected could happen
Remember watching this on TV around 1970. Human nature hasn't changed that much in 50 years, although with the current love of AI, some people are less educated than we were or are.
Very good reaction, Alexa. I'm older and so recall the cold war very well. They actually screened this film for us at school. In any event, I recommend The Bedford Incident 1964, and Virus-1980 version for future reactions. It's based on a novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick & Harvey Wheeler.
Fantastic reaction, Alexa!! When I was in junior high school in the early 60s we had atomic bomb drills and we watched films on what to do in case an attack happens: duck and cover!!! Colossus.
You might also like "Seven Days in May"
5:25 Mark! Yep! Before civilians took the term "UFO" and abused it to death, to the military, they had their "Identified Flying Objects" and their "Unidentified Flying Objects"! They relatively recently officially replaced "UFO" with a new acronym that they hope civilians will ignore and not misuse it too! 😮
Thank you Alexa for reacting to this film. It came out the same year as Doctor Strangelove but was very overshadowed by it. One is a comedy and the other, as you said "very tense". Hard to believe this film is 60 years old and is just as relevant as today. Great acting and dialogue. Henry Fonda played the President we'd all love to have.
And yes, Larry Hagman was so young. I could see the tension and emotion on your face. And you still find a way to interject some humor into the reaction of such a serious movie. Bravisimo! I highly recommend another great film from the same year; Seven Days in May. Thanks a bunch 😊
I think it would have been better if Doctor Strangelove had come out after Fail Safe instead of before. After all, it is basically a spoof of the concepts in Fail Safe, and once you've seen the spoof, why see the real thing? Or at least I guess that's what most moviegoers were thinking. Either that, or they went to the theaters expecting something along the same lines as Doctor Strangelove and were disappointed. I don't know why though. It's a great standalone movie. The same thing happened with MASH overshadowing Catch-22. I thought Catch was by far the better movie (although I know a lot of people would disagree with me), but it didn't do well at the box office, because it came out shortly after MASH.
Hi Alexa, I grew up during the Cold War. Because of my interest in military history I was aware of the tensions between East and West even at a very young age. I was about 10 years old when I saw Fail Safe. I became even more paranoid after seeing it. Alexa, if you google for the book Gaslight Compendium, I did the bookcover art of a Victorian sci-fi land battleship fighting a T-Rex. The name of the artwork and land battleship is COLOSSUS……
Very cool!
@@alexachipman Thank you, Alexa. Grew up reading H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I was beyond excited when I got the commission for a ‘wrap around’ bookcover. I created a second vehicle for the back cover, a Mississippi paddlewheeler Steamboat that can come out of the river and run on land. I named it The Crocodile.
5:01 Mark! Hmm. Nice! 😊 But remember that in 1964, not only were there people still alive that saw what happened to Japan during WW2, but because the Cold War was on-going, so were bomb tests! Near Las Vegas, Nevada, tourists could sit on bleachers and see the mushroom clouds and react to them as if they were at a fireworks show!
School children practiced "Duck and Cover Drills" too, not just fire drills or storm drills. So the doom was fresh on the minds of those that were aware it existed. 🤔
Isolated tribes wouldn't have been.
8:25 Mark! Fans of Faith Lehane's wonder where she got her "five by five" expression from! 😆
Keep up the good work flower and don’t forget Doppelgänger!!
You’ll love it.
4:12 Mark! Heh! With WW2, we used two against Imperial Japan, but that doesn't qualify as a "limited exchange" because they lacked their own atomic bombs to exchange with us.
People feared that as long as we had the exclusive monopoly that we might use them again, environment be damned, whenever there was a "big threat"! So those people felt safer with M.A.D. in place to keep us in check. While others only felt safe when we had the monopoly. 😮
As a registered Independent, I'm not going to say how party lines would chose which belief they had. 🤔🤷
One of many of Fonda's greatest films. Like Angry Men must took place in one room and was basically about people and emotions. Thank you for the Forbin reference, you have an eye for good film.
Many of the films of this time are hidden gems, like my favorite Ten Little Indians, try it lets see how if can figure it out.
Great movie and one of my all time fav's. One of things I liked was the lack of background music. Something I wish more movies would do.
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct 1962), an over-stressed American Air-force Major, based in the American nuclear missile station at Okinawa, finally cracked and thought he would solve the crisis by giving the order to launch all seven of the MGM-13 Mace nuclear missiles under his command. The fact that the missiles were aimed at China and not Russia did not seem to interfere with his calculations. The order was accepted by the launch crew who had trained for many years to carry out a missile launch, without question, but was deemed as not authentic by the second duty officer, who had to instantly send armed guards to the launch control room to terminate the launch. The launch was halted with just two minutes to spare. It is not known if the missiles could have been terminated after launch, but if the missiles had hit all their targets then tens of millions of innocent Chinese people would have been killed. China was not a nuclear power at this time. The major who gave the launch order was quietly court-marshalled and dismissed from the army and records of the event were suppressed for many decades.
Good God!! Perhaps this is where Kubrick got his idea for Dr Strangelove from.
Another incident that isn't widely known is the accidental dropping of an atomic bomb on Kansas from a B 52.
Fortunately it wasn't armed so therefore didn't detonate but bloody hell!! Oh yes! I forgot!
There's a hydrogen bomb at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea from another accident. It's been sitting there 40 or 50 years waiting.....
Haven't seen this one for 30 years or so though I've always known of it. Glad you've seen it and interesting and sharp reactions from you once again. All-star cast of its time with Henry Fonda as president etc. Top director Sidney Lumet; he could knock out quality films in fairly quick succession which is an unusual combination for even good film directors. I've just been groaning in horror at all the spoilers you've had on this page for other films. Very frustrating as there's one in particular I'd like to see you comment on.
I have had to delete a lot of comments on this, sigh!
Great Reaction to a 60 Year Old Film Showing Our Still Relevant Fear of Human Destruction...
Watching movies from the ‘60s, I’ve been struck by how many show tragedy arising out of simple mistakes or misunderstandings. There really seemed to be something in the Zeitgeist at the time.
(I’d give examples but I want to avoid potential spoilers.)
Much appreciated on the spoiler front!
I was 12 years old when the Cuban Missile Crisis came about. That was enough to scare the pants off everyone as we sat and heard JFK on television that night. I suggest you watch, The Day After.
"By Dawn's Early Light" 1990
I haven't seen this one and skipped ahead to your review, but Colossus!
I was 13 or 14 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The most comprehensive, intelligent and grounded review I have viewed so far. Subscriber on first view!
Thank you!
Hello, thank you for finding this gem.
Also like how your necklace matches your blouse. Good eye.
Missiles of October , 1974
13 Days, 2000
Matinee (1993)
Excellent choice.... I'm a late cold war kid... remember seeing this in the early eighties, bc my parents rewatched it, or something
A very good review.. Thank you.
If you haven't seen Dr. Strangelove. I think it was 1964.
Should of had Orac!
If you haven't, You might like to see Dr Strangelove, and also, The Terminator series of movies, and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Colossus
This movie always convinces me that right now, we are better off with the Three Stooges in charge than what we have offered to us. Don't you recognize the great Henry Fonda? Dom Deluise as Master Sergeant Collins, USAF... he was normally a well known comedian and comic actor. he was the fisherman talking to Kermit the Frog at the beginning of the Muppet Movie.
Sorry no!
The most riveting movie I've ever seen without a doubt.
This is my all time favourite film
At 3:40 of the video you joked about UFOs. In the military context of the 1950s & 60s that did NOT mean some sort of alien, but rather a aircraft WITHOUT a transponder in an area where one was NOT supposed to be. During that time UFOs were considered to be likely Soviet spy planes or attempts to probe for weak spots in the defense radars.
Yes I know, but I literally have a channel about the show UFO :) it is kind of my thing! You were just not in the target audience of my overlap Gerry Anderson fans.
@@alexachipman Actually I may be. I have watched many of the Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, and Space 1999. I will have to check out your other website on YT.
One danger of artificial intelligence, is when it's used to interpret the activities of other nations, especially those that have nuclear weapons. One may say that it's too dangerous to do that, but if a potential enemy starts to use it, then we may feel forced to use it to predict what the enemy's A.I. is telling them about any danger it thinks we pose.
Then the problem is: what if their A.I. or our A.I. says the signs are the other side is preparing a first strike, so beat them to it by launching immediately to take out their missiles before they have a chance to launch them.
What if that is what our potential enemy's A.I. is telling them about us, and we don't even know it.
And the thing is, A.I. has reached its conclusion by examining vast amounts of data, too much data for people to examine to see if A.I. has made a mistake.
It's trust A.I. and strike first or hope A.I. is wrong and sit on your hands.
Your realization at 12:45. Now you see the inherit danger of AI, today.
Great movie 😊
I just picked this as a more current reaction in which to make a suggestion. I have always been a fan of science fiction but grew up when TV was mostly full of westerns. I thought that seeing any more westerns would be sickening before I made a list of westerns and remembered that there were many series I just thought of as excellent stories rather than categorizing them as westerns (which they were). One series that I didn't give a chance until a few years ago was "Have Gun, Will Travel." A show about a hired gunman sounds like the last thing I would want to watch. But I had heard that one of the main writers was Gene Roddenbery so that made me curious. It turns out that the gunfighter is highly educated and highly cultured. He prefers settling matters with his brain but he can handle a gun and hand to hand contact if he has to. He is like a Scarlet Pimpernel (I hope you have seen that movie to know the reference) in the sense of having a double life although he doesn't keep his duel identity a secret. It is an addicting show. I didn't realize until I had seen the entire series that my Mother not only knew about the series but was smitten with the character. I think if you start watching it for Roddenbery's writing, you'll end up getting hooked. Another suggestion is to check into the work of another writer. I kept seeing his name and thought it had to be a pseudonym, but now I am pretty sure that he was born with it. Stirling Silliphant wrote for the series Naked City and Route 66. Naked City really took people into the streets of New York City. Route 66 told local stories where the episodes were actually filmed. Silliphant went on to basically create the format for disaster movies and wrote at least one famous horror movie. Still another series which still is one of the most liberated women's roles ever was "Decoy" which was like the female version of Dragnet.
Have Gun, Will Travel is so underrated!
@@alexachipman Something that really sticks with me is an episode where Paladin is hired to get 3 gunmen to leave a town. Each hired gun has been brought in by a different banker to run the town for them and instead the gunmen teamed up and took control. Paladin did a discourse on how Rome came to control the Holy Lands in the time of Christ - how they had been invited in to police the nation. I was shocked that I was learning this from a show that was presumably about fast draw gunmen fighting it out.
24:32 Mark! Thumb Up #44! 👍 You're welcome, and thanks! 😊
Notes: A very nice commentary review! 👌 Was that one insert from the series "UFO"? 🤔
"Colossus"? Is that the name of a mainframe computer in this movie or a reference another movie, "Colossus: The Forbin Project"? 🤔
Reference to the Forbin Project! I cannot recall what inserts I did, but knowing my obsession with UFO that is likely accurate!
@alexachipman ! Hi! Thanks! I checked out your playlist, and I saw that you have seen a lot since last time, including that movie!
Your insert included a talking satellite and a flying saucer.
@@jimmiegiboney2473 Yes, it was from UFO (the satellite was SID, which Alexa mentioned).
@@davide123 ! Thanks! 😊
I grew up in the Cold War, 1950s - 60s. Every day at noon the air raid siren in our town was tested. Some of our wealthy neighbors built "fallout shelters", bunkers under their houses. In most schools children had to practice "duck and cover" drills, where they bent under their desks in case of nuclear attack. My public elementary school instead had underground tunnels. We had regular air raid drills in which the children filed down into the tunnels. My parents were pacifists (as am I) and refused the school permission for me to take part in war drills. I went to the principal's office instead.
Wow.... I love what your parents did. Imagine if we all refused to live in fear, what a difference that would make on an energetic level. I think the kind of hysteria created by programs like duck and cover just condition kids (and adults) to expect the worst, and that's not very conducive to peace.
There's a philosophical question known as 'the Prisoner's Dilemma'.
It can be interpreted as meaning no action to be taken is the best choice.
Applied to nuclear weapons, it seems at least some of the leaders of nuclear nations have the brains or cunning to realise that.
I worry about some of the nuts we've had at the reins of power recently.
They don't know about this period of history, they didn't miss a meal, or go bed frightened in all their lives, except when being voted out of power. No wonder they hate democracy.
The don't know anything about it, nor how we escaped the end of civilisation.
Sometimes I wonder if I'll get to finish my next sentence...
Did you watch all the way to the end of the closing credits? People tend not to do that and they miss some interesting things. I'm not going to spoil them by saying which other movies this would apply to.
Yes
Now you must react to "Dr. Strangelove"
Yes !!!!
You have to watch 12 Angry Men (1957), one of the best movies of all time
I think maybe they pushed it a bit too far by having the bomber commander not believe his own wife.
I don't know if the Russians truly had voice impersonators, but it would surely have been limited to a very small number of people. It's not plausible they were prepared with convincing impersonators for all (or really any) bomber commanders.
Agreed - these days it is a legitimate concern!
You should watch 13 Days.
"Equivalent conversation"...well, no, not exactly. A Zombie Apocalypse is a fantasy situation. Thermonuclear weapons not only still exist but are actually more numerous now than 60 years ago with fewer people having enough moral guardrails against their use.
It would be cool to see you react to Dr Strangelove. I have trivia related to both movies, but I will hold off until/unless you react to that!
Colossus... Movie recommendation: The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Did you spot Boss Hogg from the show Dukes of Hazzard
No idea what any of that means, sorry!
See 1966's "A Man for All Seasons".
Many times already sorry!
@@alexachipman It's a great film -- made by a US director.
Okay, so here's an irony. I posted something that minutes later made me think "could that be considered a spoiler? Y'know, better go delete it to be sure". But, I couldn't get back here fast enough, because my computer is a clunky old piece of junk that decided right then to sputter and choke for 2 whole minutes. And the post was pruned before I could do it myself. I'm probably in trouble now. I'm the fighter pilot trying to shoot down the bomber.
90% of the comments so far on this video had to be removed for spoilers lol
Get cast Alexa, now watch Our Man Flint and lighten up ❤ God bless
Please watch 'Ladybug, Ladybug' (1963)
Thanks
Really loved this video, Alexa :) But why did you say "Olympus" at the 16.25 mark ?
Olympus is in New York for Percy Jackson fans.
@@alexachipman I see, thanks :). I would strongly recommend you watch "Ace in the Hole" (1951)
COLOSSUS: You might find this actual event interesting. youtu.be/ZGsrO3klc As someone who worked with Special Weapons in the 1980s I can tell you there have been close calls with the Soviet Union both nuclear and non nuclear.
Sadly Alexa, you're right. This film is still very relevant. And you can thank the Mad Russian in Moscow for that.
Thank you Alexa. If you'd like to see a somewhat funnier version, may I recommend "Dr. Strangelove", released in 1964.