Year:
2000
Studio:
New Line Cinema/Beacon Entertainment
Movie:
4/5
DVD:
5/5
Thirteen Days is a
movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis. The movie centers around three
characters: President John F Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), Attorney
General Robert F Kennedy (Steven Culp), and Special Assistant to the
President Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner). Although Costner is in the
title role, it's not really a movie about his characters point of view.
The movie is based on historical fact and tries to remain true to the
source material, of which there is a lot not only because Kennedy was
such an accessible president but because a lot of the discussions were
taped. The Soviet Union tries to put nuclear missiles on Cuba. The US
imposes a blockade. The Soviets back off. It's the details that are
interesting and the drama is in how close we came to war.
Cinematographically it's a relatively quiet film with little camera
movement. Some scenes are in black and white to give it more of a
historical feeling. Other scenes use footage of the time, some of it
colorized quite well. Most of the movie takes place in the White House
in various meetings.
It's a very talky movie and quite interesting. The characterizations of
the main three characters are very good. Not that I'm an expert on the
Kennedy administration. General Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway) and General
Maxwell Taylor (Bill Smitrovich) seem to be about right from what I've
read of those two personalities.
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It helps not
knowing exactly what happened — to me it's all old history. So at least
I wasn't anticipating the details. I think that even for people who
have personal memories the behind-the-scenes goings on would be
interesting to them. Naturally, people who've studied the subject will
probably find things to criticize.
One DVD commentary track is with director Roger Donaldson, writer David
Self, and executive producer Michael De Luca. Kevin Costner also says a
few things but his stuff was obviously taped separately. In general I'd
rather have a group of people talking than separate commentaries
spliced together.
The second DVD commentary track is historical information. Various
historians and authors talk about events depicted on screen. Also used
are recordings from President Kennedy and Denny O'Donnell talking about
the events. There is also an optional information track that shows
written information on screen. But it's hard to both listen to the
historical track and read the information track, which really doesn't
say much nor say it quickly.
There is an interesting 50-minute documentary, "Roots of the Cuban
Missile Crisis". There are also short, one to three minute biographical
segments on Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro. There is an 11-minute
behind-the-scenes/making-of featurette. Nine deleted scenes with
optional commentary are also included, many of the scenes being quite
interesting.
What I liked: interesting look at a crucial point of history.
What I didn't like: nothing significant.
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