Monday, April 9, 2007
Fail-Safe
Watched Fail-Safe this evening and added an analysis of its depiction of the White House to the Movies & TV page. Nearly all the WH scenes occur in the Sit Room, which is depicted as a concrete bunker with a handset telephone while the Pentagon and SAC have sophisticated video screens and speaker phones. Walter Matthau's math (60 million dead is empirically better than 100 million dead) is unintentionally hilarious today, but Henry Fonda is so presidential, you'll be chilled anyway.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Watched that one a few times......spooky!
ReplyDeleteWhen you have time, Derek, have a look at "Murder at 1600" with Wesley Snipes, Allan Alda & Dennis Miller. Some authenticity here, but the murder scene locates a bathroom where the President's Dining Room actually is. Full points for the Cross Hall and North Foyer though.
Good review. Gonna have to pick that one up.
ReplyDeleteI saw Fail-Safe quite a few years ago. It was austere in it's look, and it was riveting. Henry Fonda so against type, and very underplayed.
ReplyDeleteDerek, I was reading all the movie & video reviews and the varying degrees of accuracy in depicting the White House. Another thing your proposed White House Musem could do would be to rent out for movies & TV (at night) thus generating money for the Museum.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you ever get a chance, have a look at the movie Dave with Kevin Kline. In it, a regular guy gets to live out all of our dreams when he is selected to pose as the president and live in the white house!
ReplyDeleteSome authenticity in terms of the space they were working with, but seemed to have completly redesigned the second floor! Still worth a look.
Yeah; I've been meaning to get to Dave, as well as Dick.
ReplyDelete