Thirteen Days (2000) Review

Kevin Costner stars in a meticulous dramatization of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Painstaking attention to detail breathes life into the true story of when an untested President John F. Kennedy found himself challenged by the Soviet Union with the fate of millions on the line. But the superb performances of the actors is what makes this piece of history a great film.

The movie begins with a rocket launch followed by a serious of nuclear explosions. It is a grim and unsettling presentation made more profound by the realization that this is real footage of tests, not special effects. Boldly confrontational, this sequence sets the tone for how serious the consequences could be in 1962.

Chronologically laid out, Thirteen Days follows the events of each day complete with documentary style titles. Things start on October 16, 1962 when a U-2C spy plane comes back with fresh photographs of construction by Soviet military personnel in Cuba. Quickly the cylindrical objects are identified as being SS-4 Sandal medium range nuclear tipped missiles.

The reconnaissance pictures shown are the real thing, by the way.

An interesting choice by director Roger Donaldson was to portray certain scenes in black and white to convey a feeling of the era. In fact, many of these scenes recreated photos from Life magazine. It is the kind of stage gimmick Orson Welles would have approved of and succeeds in evoking nostalgia.

We are introduced to Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner) and his family. O’Donnell is John F. Kennedy’s right hand man; the one you have to go through to see him. Like Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), O’Donnell inhabits the hardball side of politics filtered through the prism of a jock’s attitude.

That’s also a trait shared with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp in an eerie performance) which becomes very obvious as the dynamic between the three shows. They are young by Washington, D.C. standards and very aggressive. Bobby enters the picture after the briefing given on the missiles by McGeorge Bundy (Frank Wood) from the NSA.

The untried trio are the focus of the movie and everything revolves around them as the crisis unfolds at break neck speed. With over thirty missiles serviced by 3,400 Soviet technicians and soldiers in Cuba, the Soviet Union finally is building a first strike capability against the continental United States. To say this is a major problem would be a truly drastic understatement. In fact, Washington, D.C. is only five minutes away after launch. But the news gets worse – the missiles will be operational in twelve to fourteen days.

The Kennedy brothers take this as a betrayal by the Soviets since there had been a verbal agreement not to station any offensive weapons in Cuba. They are also afraid of looking weak, since their father had been involved in the Munich Conference of 1938 where the West gave the Sudetenland to Hitler in an effort to appease him. Compounding this fear is the ghost of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion earlier in the Presidency.

 

Having a bunch of people around a table talking doesn’t sound like a recipe for riveting cinema in this era of big explosions and crazy plot twists. This movie shows how compelling and tense these scenes can be as we witness officials being gathered together to figure out the situation. Standouts are Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker) and General Maxwell Taylor (Bill Smitrovitch) representing the defense establishment. The nerdy arrogance of McNamara is on full display throughout the film and you can see the roots of his mismanagement of the Defense Department.

As each day unfolds, something new happens to make things even worse than the previous day. With the perceived weakness of the Kennedy’s, the military doesn’t trust them to do the right thing after the Bay of Pigs. On the administration’s side, they felt betrayed and misled by the military over that operation, so conflict was unavoidable. It didn’t help having a loose cannon like General Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway) openly champing at the bit to attack the Soviets. Speaking of him, Conway is a scene stealer every time he appears.

1962 was a midterms election year. As a result, efforts to hide what was happening meant the President had to go on the campaign trail, much to his annoyance. It also made rounding up Congressional leaders very difficult on short notice. This was a time before cellphones and the Internet; communications were slow in ways younger people can’t begin to imagine.

Subsequently, the military buildup begins, the media starts sensing something is going on, and the Kennedy brothers float a dangerous idea that sends things spinning out of control. All the while the actions of the Soviets are a mystery to the Americans. A beleaguered JFK eventually is forced to go public with what is going on and a stunned public worries about World War III.

The reaction shot above right is cleaned up and colorized from actual media footage during the crisis. It is said a picture can say a thousand words and that face speaks volumes about how the public received the news.

The blossoming power of television is ever present in the movie. After all, Kennedy was our first “TV” president. Real footage of Walter Cronkite adds to the feeling of being there. Younger folks don’t know him, but that man was considered something close to being the voice of God to most Americans for decades. What he said was considered the absolute truth, not to be doubted or questioned. It isn’t something people in this more cynical time can relate to.

Weaving all the events with a very candid and personal look at JFK and RFK through Kenny O’Donnell’s eyes was a brilliant decision. Their humanity is ever present driving what could have been a very dry retelling of historical bullet points. People in power seem remote and more than human, but the reality is they aren’t that much different than us.

That isn’t to say the events are portrayed in a boring fashion. There are some very memorable scenes and the one that stood out to me the most was a low level reconnaissance run by two RF-8 Photo Crusaders over the missile sites being worked on. Between the political maneuvering around the mission and the intensely executed sequence you get a good impression of how everyone was walking on a razor’s edge of danger. The special effects here are superb, being a mix of the practical and computer generated that make for a thrilling run through the jungle at tree top level.

The verbal duel at the United Nations between the Soviet ambassador and Adlai Stevenson is another worthy scene out of many. Like most of the dialogue, it was taken verbatim or condensed from the records of the time. It is a moment of high drama watching a once powerful politician in the twilight of his career having to come through while the world was literally watching.

Once the naval “quarantine” is imposed by the United States, the tension mounts in the movie like it did in real life. Confusion reigns as conflicting messages are received from Premier Krushchev via teletype and a backdoor offer comes from a KGB spy to an ABC newsman.  The drums of war are beating and it seems like nothing can defuse the situation.

In the end, the “will of good men” saves the world from nuclear war. There can be no spoilers, since I’m sitting here typing this review. What a different world it would have been otherwise.

I particularly liked the ending of the movie at the O’Donnell residence as the kids react to their father finally breaking down now that things were over. Once again, showing the humanity of the participants in the crisis is what makes this a great movie.

Thoughts

Thirteen Days takes its title from the book written by Bobby Kennedy with that as the basis for some of what is portrayed. The bulk of Kenny O’Donnell’s side of things was derived from an interview he did in the late 60’s. More information and dialogue was taken from recordings of the meetings from the National Archives.

While meticulously factual, this is not an unbiased film since the makers of it are clear fans of the Kennedy’s. Watching it with the commentary track on reveals that very quickly and it is interesting to hear what conclusions they came to on the famous brothers. What’s more interesting is how I came to different conclusions from watching their final result. This is most likely because I am not a Boomer and never held the myth of modern day “Camelot” in high regard.

I did not find Jack or Bobby to be as strong as the film makers did. Much of the problems they faced were of their own creation due to showing weakness and ineptitude in dealing with the very complicated political landscape of the Cold War. That impression was reinforced by additional documentary features I’ll discuss later.

The fact I came to these conclusions actually pays tribute to just how honest they film makers were in producing Thirteen Days. They show the flaws of the Kennedy brothers without shying away from them, though some of these won’t be apparent to those viewers who don’t know the history of the time. From showing JFK being in chronic pain and popping pills to their foul mouthed tendencies, we get a relatively unvarnished view of the real men.

The excellent performances by Greenwood and Culp contribute immensely to this. Greenwood is closer to the JFK of myth in that he has a lower more authoritative voice and better looks than the real man. For the record, I don’t understand why anybody thought President Kennedy was good looking. Maybe it was the fact he had hair and it had been decades since we’d had a president with hair. As Bobby Kennedy, Culp simply becomes the man I’ve seen in historic interviews and footage.

I better not leave Kevin Costner out of the praises. His Kenny O’Donnell is the kind of guy that was needed to ground things. Through him we get a feeling of normalcy in what was a highly romanticized administration. It is a part Costner threw himself completely into and at one point during the early commentary he lapses into the Boston accent of the character without realizing it. It’s a superb performance from an often underrated actor.

There isn’t a bad performance in the sprawling cast. I get the sense everyone in the movie knew they were working on something special and put out their best effort. New Line Cinema lost money on this movie and probably knew they would. $34 million gross on an $80 million investment isn’t something studios are willing to do today.

Something that struck me on watching this that I hadn’t caught before. That is how the Roman Catholic faith is quietly present throughout the film with a couple of church scenes being the most obvious. But it is the phone call between Kenny and the U-2 pilot near the end of the movie that made me notice it. It is an exceptional scene made all the more so by what follows.

I highly recommend Thirteen Days with one warning. The PG-13 rating is earned exclusively due to the large amount of profanity in it. That prevents it from being a family friendly movie and while faithfully accurate to the records it wasn’t really needed. So parents, be aware of this and watch it before showing to children. It is an excellent movie and should be required viewing for anyone interested in history.

Technical

The movie is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and is of superb visual quality. 5.1 Dolby Surround sound is well used when needed, but this is a talky movie.

What sets this DVD apart from any I’ve seen is the “infinifilm” option that allows you to watch it with popups you can click on to see more information. Include in this feature is documentary footage, interviews, making of details, extended and cut scenes, plus the standard actor resumes. All of these extend the film another extra hour plus but are well worth it.  To me the interviews with Nikita Krushchev’s son, Sergei, are the best part of the extras. Here you finally get the Soviet side of events and I never realized just how much of the Cuban Missile Crisis was directly controlled by Premier Krushchev.

The option to watch them separately from the movie is available on the DVD menus, but they suffer from being cut to be inserted into the film and do not flow on their own.

The commentary track is better than average though it suffers from redundancy with the “infinifilm” features. The film makers are relaxed and even develop a running joke throughout. Many times commentaries don’t really add to a movie, thankfully this is not the case here.

If watched on a PC, there are additional features that I didn’t check out including the ability to read the scripts while watching the film. Online extras are listed, but I didn’t check to see if they still worked.

Extra Screen Shots

Philippine Air Force F-5E Tiger’s and defunct F-8 Crusader’s were used in the flight line shots on location. Repainted to depict American aircraft they did a good job conveying the look of the period, though the F-5A only started production in 1962 for foreign countries. The F-5 program was saved by the Kennedy Administration so it is appropriate to have them in the film.

 

One thing the makers of the movie did that was interesting to me was the restoration and colorization of period footage. A lot of good views of military equipment rarely seen anymore. Check out the very rare McDonnell F3H-2 Demon fighters in the last shot.