Directed By: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Shawn Driscoll
Tag line: "You'll Never Believe How Close We Came"
Trivia: This was the fFirst film to be screened at the White House by newly-elected President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, a screening also attended by several members of the Kennedy family.
Years ago, I read Robert Kennedy: In His Own Words, an excellent book of interviews with the former Attorney General in which he talked, very frankly, about everything from his tense relationship with FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover to the events of Nov. 22, 1963, when his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.
Intended as an oral history of the Kennedy Administration, RFK also discussed, at length, the Cuban Missile Crisis, a 13-dsy standoff that started when a U.S. spy plane detected the construction of several Soviet nuclear missile sites on the nearby island of Cuba. Thirteen Days, a 2000 movie directed by Roger Donaldson, takes an even closer look at this showdown, and in so doing reveals just how close the world came to all-out nuclear war.
Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner), a longtime friend and confidant of Pres. John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and Attorney General Robert Kennedy (Steven Culp), works as a special Secretary to the President, a position that gives him access to top-level meetings. In October of 1962, President Kennedy and his cabinet, along with the country’s military leaders, learn that the Soviet Union is building short-range nuclear missile sites in Cuba, which, when operational, would give them the ability to attack the Continental United States.
Agreeing they cannot allow such bases so close to U.S. soil, Kennedy and his advisors discuss several options. The military, led by Army Gen. Maxwell Taylor (Bill Smitrovich) and Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway), recommend an invasion of Cuba, while others favor more diplomatic solutions, including a naval blockade of the island, which would prevent future shipments of weapons. With time running out, President Kennedy must choose a course of action or risk exposing the United States to a possible attack.
The greatest strength of Thirteen Days is its ability to generate tension while relating a well-known historical event. Throughout the film, we the audience sit in on key conversations between the Kennedy brothers and O’Donnell, where they discuss and debate ways to get the missiles out of Cuba without resorting to an invasion. The military is pushing for it; the Generals even try to manipulate the situation by flying missions over Cuba, believing that, if a U.S. plane is shot down, Kennedy would have no alternative but to issue the invasion order. Even with a good portion of the movie set in conference rooms, Thirteen Days is a suspenseful watch, a real accomplishment when you consider that everyone knows beforehand how it’s going to end.
Though it suffers a little in the authenticity department (Costner’s Massachusetts accent definitely leaves something to be desired) and may not be historically accurate (some, including former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamera, contend that Kenny O’Donnell was nothing more than a personal secretary, and had no role whatsoever in the decision-making process), Thirteen Days, with its marvelous performances and smart script, is a tremendously engaging historical drama.
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