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THIRTEEN DAYS Send This Review to a Friend
Director Roger Donaldson and screenwriter David Self take an unusual approach in their dramatically taut, politically argumentative "Thirteen Days," focusing on the October, 1962 missile crisis when the world stood on the brink of a possible nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. While the film portrays John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby as the heroes who saved the day and fought off the military hot-heads who would have taken steps that could have guaranteed nuclear conflict, the story is told from the perspective of Kenneth P. O'Donnell, a top presidential aide. Making O'Donnell the prime focus tilts the drama, especially since he is played by Kevin Kostner, the film's star.
While the film is a super-patriotic ode to American leadership in playing strategic cards so that the Russians ultimately agreed to back down and remove the missiles they were setting up in Cuba, it remains questionable whether these missiles, however close to the United states, would have justified plunging the world into nuclear catastrophe had the political poker game in the White House failed to get the hoped for results. To those readers who lived through the moment, the question persists: would you and your families have been ready to die to back up the face-off that resulted from a decision to blockade Russian ships headed for Cuba?
That question posed, "Thirteen Days" is undeniably an edge-of the-seat drama made all the more interesting for its portrayal of real figures of the time. Many of the movers and shakers are there, including Adlai Stevenson, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, General Curtis LeMay, Dean Rusk, Dean Acheson, Andrei Gromyko.of the Soviet Union and others from the history books. Historians will have to say how accurate the depiction of the principals and the actual events is, but there is no denying that these were tense, very dangerous days.
Donaldson extracts maximum melodrama from the situation and takes us on a roller coaster ride through the arguments, policy differences, strategic maneuvers and ultimate resolution based on an agreement for America to pull its missiles from Turkey later so that it didn't look like a quid pro quo for the Russian retreat in Cuba. The film bristles with authenticity, both with respect to the setting and the performances. Kostner is excellent as O'Donnell, Bruce Greenwood is especially effective as President Kennedy and Stephen Culp does a strong turn as Robert Kennedy.
It is a tribute to the filmmakers that they can get so much dramatic tension out of conversations. This isn't an action film. The action is what must be avoided. This is a political chess game, with shots interspersed of missiles and ships, maps and explanations. It is the backroom wheeling and dealing that's the stuff of high drama here.
Are there lessons to be learned? Probably. Meanwhile, the film is a glimpse back into Cold War history, and viewers will undoubtedly have their own political take on how the episode should be regarded. A New Line Films release.
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