223: Fail-Safe / A House of Dynamite (with Corey Atad and Robert Rubsam)

The film writers Robert Rubsam and Corey Atad join the show for a discussion of two apocalyptic nuclear thrillers, Sidney Lumet’s Fail-Safe (1964) and Kathryn Bigelow’s brand new Netflix production A House of Dynamite.Both Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe were released by Columbia Pictures within months of each other in 1964 (as the result of a lawsuit stemming from the respective novels the films were based on). The two films depict an accidental nuclear crisis from the perspective of command-and-control rooms helpless to prevent the impending bombing but Lumet’s version is a serious critique of Game Theory from a humanist perspective, with the participation of creatives who had been caught up in the Hollywood Blacklist during the Cold War.Bigelow’s modern version of such a tale of nuclear crisis, by contrast, has a lot less to say about the subject. We compare its structural shortcomings to Lumet’s stark masterpiece, a film more plugged in to its zeitgeist than this new Netflix production is.Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilterFollow Corey Atad on Twitter and Bluesky and visit coreyatad.comFollow Robert Rubsam on Twitter and Bluesky and visit robertrubsam.comTony Schwartz’s “Daisy” commercial for LBJ’s 1964 Presidential election campaignTrailer for Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet, 1964)Promo for the live tv broadcast on CBS of Fail-Safe (Stephen Frears, 2000)Trailer for Henry Fonda for President (Alexander Horwath, 2024)Trailer for A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow, 2025)