Thirteen Days

Released 2000
Stars Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker, Michael Fairman, Henry Strozier, Frank Wood, Kevin Conway, Tim Kelleher, Bill Smitrovich
Directed by Roger Donaldson

The 1962 Cuban missile crisis was the closest we've come to a nuclear world war. Nikita Khrushchev installed Soviet missiles in Cuba, 90 miles from Florida and within striking distance of 80 million Americans. Kennedy told him to remove them, or else. As Soviet ships with more missiles moved toward Cuba, a U.S. naval blockade was set up to stop them. The world waited. At the University of Illinois, I remember classes being suspended or ignored as we crowded around TV sets and the ships drew closer in the Atlantic. There was a real possibility that nuclear bombs might fall in the next hour. And then Walter Cronkite had the good news: The Soviets had turned back. Secretary of State Dean Rusk famously said, "We went eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked."

The most controversial assertion of Roger Donaldson's "Thirteen Days," an intelligent new political thriller, is that the guys who blinked were not only the Soviets, but also America's own military commanders--who backed down not from Soviet ships but from the White House.

Summary by Roger Ebert

The Cuban missile crisis was one of the scariest moments in our history, and "Thirteen Days" brings the history to life. The DVD is loaded with extras (in fact, it's a 2 DVD package), and Roger Donaldson talks about how they tried to be as accurate as possible. They used documents, interviews, and the transcripts from JFK's secretly recorded tapes to recreate the meetings, analyses, and heated discussions that eventually saved the world from WWIII. I believe it must be a pretty accurate portrayal of the events, with the exception of the Kenny O'Donnell character. The consensus seems to be this part was built up to support Costner, since O'Donnell is supposed to be rarely heard on the JFK tapes. The movie would have been better without Costner in this role, since it's distracting to hear him butcher the New England accent. The problem then is they wouldn't have had a star in the movie. The compromises of film-making...

I had always heard how JFK had to fight his own military, and this movie really illustrates that. The generals were itching to do what they do best, and they were willing to mislead the president or to use events to their advantage to allow an escalation into engagement. The problem is they didn't have the big picture in mind. Thank goodness some people did. Jack and Bobby had to allow themselves to appear weak as they desperately sought a non-military solution to the crisis. Obviously the missiles could not be allowed to become operational 90 miles from Florida. Apparently, it was McNamara's idea to concede the missiles in Turkey if the Soviets withdrew theirs from Cuba. When Adlai Stevenson posed the trade in the movie, I thought it was fair. We don't want to be forced to relinquish points of strength, but if we have nuclear missiles on the border of the Soviets, why can't they have them near ours? One reason would be that we weren't actively annexing countries via force like the Soviets were, but it was a fair concession. I'm sure Turkey wasn't too thrilled, since they were fearful of being annexed, but it was fair from a global point of view.

My biggest question about this movie is whether the portrayal of JFK was accurate. I always thought he was a charismatic man, but he's flat here. Steven Culp plays Bobby with charisma, but Bruce Greenwood's Jack is distant and dour. I never had the sense people would be inspired by him, and that seems to be the opposite of his legacy. From the speeches I've seen, he seemed to have a presence similar to Clinton, but you don't see that here.

Overall this is a really good thriller. The tension is cranked up immediately and doesn't wane for two hours, but it's a shame the last half-hour closes with a whimper as it shifts from the crisis to family moments. It would have been a lot better if it had trimmed a half-hour and remained focused on the events, but it's still very good. --Bill Alward, December 22, 2001