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Thirteen Days [2001]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

On its theatrical release Thirteen Days was pummelled by American critics for taking liberties with the facts of the Cuban missile crisis and smothering its compelling drama with phoney Boston accents by its primary stars. But anyone who enjoys taut, intelligent political thrillers will find little to complain about here. Co-star and co-producer Kevin Costner drew criticism for fictionally enhancing the White House role of presidential aide Kenneth O'Donnell, but while Costner's Boston accent may be grating, his fine performance as O'Donnell offers expert witness to the crisis, its nerve-wracking escalation and the efforts of John F Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and Robert F Kennedy (Steven Culp) to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Russia. While Soviet missiles approach operational status in Cuba, director Roger Donaldson (who directed Costner in No Way Out) cuts to exciting US Navy flights over the missile site, ramping up the tension that history itself provided. Donaldson's occasional use of black and white is self-consciously distracting, and he's further guilty of allowing a shrillness (along with repetitive, ominous shots of nuclear explosions) to invade the urgency of David Self's screenplay. Still, as Hollywood history lessons go, Thirteen Days is riveting stuff. You may find yourself wondering what might happen if reality presented a repeat scenario under less intelligent leadership.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com


Good drama, but no history lesson.
Review date: 2008-06-16 Rating: 6 out of 10

Thirteen Days tells the story of the two weeks when the world came closest to Mutually Assured Destruction in the autumn of 1962 when the Soviet Union established missiles in Cuba. As historical films go this is one of the more thoughtful. Kennedy is presented in a sympathetic light placating the 'hawks' in the military who were determined to bomb the Russian missile sites and invade Cuba, as well as rising to Khruschev's test of will. In essence this was the purpose of Khruschev's strategy to test the young American President who had undermined his authority with the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Like most historical films accuracy is an issue and once you get past the dodgy Boston Irish-American accents, then it is possible to enjoy this political, military and diplomatic drama. Ultimately the film descends into corny patriotism as Kennedy is presented as the man who saved the world instead of the politician who was responsible for the Bay of Pigs, an escalation in the arms race and strategic games when pointing missiles at Russia via Turkey. As for Kevin Costner although he gives a solid performance he cannot resist an over sentimental finale. This is in sharp contrast to that other film about Mutually Assured Destruction, the darkly comic Dr Strangelove.

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Reviews


high tension
Review date: 2007-05-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

Nothing to add to what's already been said here by clearly knowledgeable reviewers except to say that there's a superb wealth of excellent extras including extremely erudite mini biogs of a range of key political and administrative figures who appear in the film, history behind the Cuban Missile Crisis, very impressive deleted scenes (best I've seen, presumably cut because of time constraints rather than quality issues), turning the story into the film plus the usual commentaries (which latter my player won't read properly, grr...)

A tremendous package for enthusiasts of united states political history and maybe essential viewing for the current administration who appear lacking in the subtle intellectual analysis surely necessary to resolve international crises as effectively as possible

A Few Good Men
Review date: 2006-12-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

A reviewer wrote a little further down that Costners character never existed- I assure you he did, just like everyone else in this story. Thats what makes this film good- I have read much concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis- and all the major characters from that time are included. Pretty much everyone is accuratly portrayed (even if you hate JFK, you have to admit he was quite the hero here) so it is useful as a history lesson.

Surprisingly good and surprisingly timely
Review date: 2006-08-27 Rating: 8 out of 10

Sometimes Kevin Costner just can't be told. On Tin Cup he couldn't be told that a scene of him beating a security guard to a bloody pulp because he forgot his ID card wasn't going to endear him to the audience in a romcom (I never saw the finished film, but I believe the preview audiences succeeded in getting that scene cut). In The Postman he couldn't be told that ending a film with a statue of him being unveiled was really not a good idea. At all. And in Thirteen Days he couldn't be told that adopting a Boston accent was not a good idea when it makes him sound just like Elmer Fudd. For the first quarter of an hour you're just waiting for him to say "Be wewwy, wewwy qwuiet. I'm hunting Wussian Miss-eyells." So it's a testament to the strength of the film that it survives that hurdle and emerges as a gripping thriller even though we all know the ending.

Although Costner gets top billing, the film really belongs to Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp as JFK and Bobby Kennedy, avoiding impersonation (and the accent) to give quite superb performances. While the film is occasionally guilty of overglamorizing the dynamic duo, it's surprising to see just how little control they were able to exercise over the Chiefs of Staff who seemed hell-bent on escalating the Cuban Missile Crisis into a full-scale invasion. Considering the final result, it seems particularly timely now to see a drama about a US President desperate to avoid a pointless war over weapons of mass destruction that he knew did exist at a time when we have a US President who was desperate to start a pointless war over weapons that he knew didn't exist: for all the corruption, spin and dilettantism of the Kennedy administration, this was one of those fortuitous examples of the right leader at the right time.

The film certainly manages to pull off the rare achievement of instilling a real sense of pride not in action but in diplomacy, with most of the drama taking place in conference rooms (although there are a couple of genuinely exciting pieces of filmmaking in the spy flights over Cuba). Indeed, perhaps the most genuinely stirring moment is Adlai Stevenson calling the Russian ambassador's bluff at the UN, the sort of thing which doesn't exactly pull in the kids at the multiplex. This doesn't always pay dividends, however. The biggest problem is that it loses tension by being so confined to the political and military players: there's no sense of the very real fear that spread throughout the world that this really was IT and that the mushroom clouds would start sprouting any minute. As a result the movie does begin to lose its grip towards the end, and doesn't entirely dodge mawkishness. The sporadic early shifts from color to black and white are a real failure, too. With the archive footage in color, there simply seems no reason for them, and they seem to have been thrown in arbitrarily purely to give it an imagined cutting edge. Still, they're fairly minor flaws in an impressive thriller.

The extras package is truly excellent, especially the 50-minute historical documentary and video portraits of the real key players. Well worth picking up.

Nuclear Missile Crisis
Review date: 2006-08-23 Rating: 8 out of 10

Forget the multitude of indiscretions that JFK may have committed in his sadly short life and watch this film.
It tells the story of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

It isn't 100% accurate. Kevin Costners character never existed, although it may be mixture of a number of actual real-life people. However what it shows, with some great performances, is how close to a Nuclear catastrophy we came in 1962. I was only one at the time, so have no personal recollection of the events, but if this film is 50% true then we should all be grateful that JFK was in power and not Bush.
JFK was a mostly lone voice in a government full of hawks who were advising him to go for an all out nuclear first strike. JFK went behind their backs and did a deal with the Russians.

Of course if you believe that all out nuclear war is a sensible option then you will hate this film. For the rest of us though, this very well made film shows how great a politician Kennedy really was.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Drake Cook
Shawn Driscoll
Kevin Costner
Lucinda Jenney
Bruce Greenwood

Creators:
Kevin Costner (Primary Contributor)
Kevin Costner (Producer)
Bruce Greenwood (Primary Contributor)
Armyan Bernstein (Producer)
Ilona Herzberg (Producer)
Lope V. Juban Jr. (Producer)
David Self (Writer)
Ernest R. May (Writer)
Philip D. Zelikow (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
EAN: 5017188884143
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2005-08-01
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 145 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001-01-12
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Russian (Original Language)

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