Where the buck stops

Henry Fonda is on the phone to Dan O’Herlihy and he’s about to ask him to do the unthinkable. It’s a small but pivotal moment in Fail Safe, a 1964 classic about the risks of nuclear warfare.

A friend describes it as Dr Strangelove played straight, but the underlying message about our willingness to absolve ourselves of responsibility, the ease with which we trust machines for subconscious emotional reasons, holds a solid message ...