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Bruce Greenwood, Dylan Baker, Steven Culp, Tim Kelleher Peter O. Almond, Kevin Costner Kevin O'Donnell Rated PG-13 for brief strong language RATING CANADA... Rated PG for language. |
Thriller The fate of millions literally hinges on the ability of two men |
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   Reality is much more terrifying than fiction sometimes. In October of 1962 I was in grade school. My life revolved around my comics and monster magazines. Fictional heroes and monsters. Meanwhile out in the real world we had real monsters and real heroes. The world was actually on the brink of nuclear war and there was no Superman to help us. In his stead were real men and women fighting to keep us safe and it all happened in the space of THIRTEEN DAYS The world was in the midst of a Cold War with very hot weapons, weapons that if used would have meant a disaster like this planet had never seen before. This was the greatest test for the youngest US president ever, John F. Kennedy. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 pitted Kennedy and his administration against Premier Nikita Khrushchev of Russia. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. Once discovered, the United States military forces went on full alert and the Soviet field commanders in Cuba were authorized to to use the tactical nuclear weapons in their possession. If the United States invaded, they were instructed to use the missiles. Kennedy could not allow these missiles within 5 minute striking range of his nation. The misiles had to go or it would definitely mean war, there was no other way. The two leaders and their staffs played a dangerous game of chess with the fate of millions in their hands. They either came to a compromise or we would be using those bomb shelters everyone was building back then. Those were tense days back then and I remember everyone watching television hoping the situation could be resolved. I didn't realize just how close we were until I saw THIRTEEN DAYS. The movie brought back those tense days vividly. If all the young ones out there want to see what it was like, this movie will definitely show you. The film follows the chronological order of all the events that occurred, only this time we get to see the behind the scenes struggles and schemes to thwart tragedy. We get to see all the intrigues from the moment the missiles were spotted, the blockade against any ship entering Cuban waters and the final agreements that prevented the Cold War from becoming extremely hot. The players in this little scenario were from the Soviet Side...Nikita Khrushchev, Anatoly Dobrynin and Fidel Castro. On the American Side were John Kennedy and his Executive Committee which consisted of Robert Kennedy, McGeorge Bundy, Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, Maxwell Taylor, Theodore Sorensen, George Ball, Douglas Dillon, Paul Nitze and Adlai Stevenson. JFK set up this hand picked committee to provide him with all the information he needed as well as advise. The actors playing these people were all very good with the weakest being Kevin Costner. I am not a big Costner fan so this did not surprise me. He is a one dimensional actor waiting for that role that will make him. On the other hand is Steven Culp who plays Robert Kennedy. He walked away with the picture in my opinion. Steven has been mistaken by many as well as myself for Robert Culp's son, remember him from I SPY? Well he isn't even though I sure think he looks a lot like Robert Culp. Steven can be seen in a recurring role on one of my favourite television shows, JAG. Every time he is in the show he adds a great deal to it. This film will probably give his film career an incredible boost, and he truly deserves it. Director b>Roger Donaldson picked a good cast to play in this film even though I was tepid with his choice of Bruce Greenwood for the part of JFK. His acting at times was excellent but whenever he spoke it just did not sound at all like John Kennedy, so it put me off a bit. Costner's Boston accent was not very good either. Culp, on the other hand, had Robert's accent down as perfect as it could get. Donaldson was also smart to add in real news footage of Walter Cronkite; it added to the authentic feel of the movie. One strike against him was that he kept hitting us with too many scenes of atom bomb explosions. I guess he was trying to make sure the audience realized what the consequences of the government's failure would be. He did keep the tension up throughout the movie so in that he succeeded quite admirably. Even though this film has an excellent script, I do not expect THIRTEEN DAYS to do great at the boxoffice since few docu-dramas ever do. Still, if you have the time this is a must see and not a film to miss. With everything that happened it was a miracle that only one life was lost. That of an American pilot named Major Rudolph Anderson (Charles Esten). The picture ends nicely with President Kennedy writing to Anderson's family. The crisis was over but a bigger tragedy was just around the corner. |
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