I'm a child of the 1970s, but this movie still scared me. You didn't have to grow up during the 50s or 60s to appreciate this. Anways in the 1980s, when Reagan was in office, nuclear war seemed a very real prospect. This movie is deadly serious, NO humor at all, and lit very sparsely. The battles between Russian and US planes seen as blips on a huge screen, is just as scary as if we had seen it realistically. Frightening, harrowing...hard to believe this film still has that effect now. Well worth watching but it's very very grim. Also, Fonda is superb as the President.

22 January 2010. Even in black and white, this edgy, raw and gripping nuclear apocalyptic thriller retains is powerful and emotional message even after 46 years. Even though some of the equipment is dated in this movie, the serious and almost seemingly electronic starkness is able to project a impressive, compelling impression of sophistication that maintains a level of captivating images that breath intelligence and innovation of government operations even years ago. The acting and substance of this thriller contains a constant level of tension, off-balance conflict that hits home even today. While almost deviating, particularly in the beginning to the dated acting dramatics of the 60s, this movie successful keeps its attention on seemingly realistic and heightened elements of military and political strategy, operations and equipment, tactics that all fit well together making the entire movie a unified and seamless experience in accidental tragedy. 9/10.

This cold war era classic certainly made you think if it's storyline was possible. The plausibility of the solution to avert an all-out retaliatory nuclear war that the American and Soviet leaders decide on in the film is still debated but this film captures the essence of the cold war paranoia in this film directed by Sidney Lumet. This was Lumet's seventh film of his career and he was known for his dramas that were screen stage plays with 12 Angry Men, Long Days Journey Into Night and The Pawnbroker. Henry Fonda heads up an excellent cast including Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman, Dan O'Herlihy, Ed Binns and Frank Overton. In 1958 author Peter George wrote the novel Red Alert and would go on to win an out of court settlement over the authors of Fail Safe, Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, on plagiarism charges. Interestingly the dramatic novel Red Alert would serve as the basic premise for this dramatic film and in the dark comedy Dr. Strangelove which were both released in the same year by the same studio. Good tension and drama from this script by Walter Bernstein. Weather it could or couldn't have happened as it did in this story it's still a compelling film 42 years later. I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.