Thirteen days. Thirteen days of fear and tension. Thirteen days of worldwide political and military crisis. Thirteen days in October 1962 when the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics stood “eyeball-to-eyeball” in a confrontation that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
The “Cuban Missile Crisis,” as history has dubbed this autumnal fortnight, was perhaps the closest humanity has ever come to nuclear annihilation. I remember those thirteen days very well. At the time, I was one month short of eleven years old. I vividly recall the all-pervasive fear and tension, when none of us slept and all of us prayed. Our family lived in a small house located about two miles from the main gate of Dow Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command B-52 air base in Maine (now closed and replaced by an international airport). For two weeks that October, day and night, we could hear the alert klaxons urgently calling airmen to arms and pilots to the cockpits of their bombers. We heard the deafening roar of B-52 Stratofortress bombers taking off for unknown destinations. And we all wondered if that particular day would be our last…
In the year 2000 – thirty-eight years after humanity’s “near death experience” – came a movie that attempts to re-create the tension and fear of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thirteen Days, starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, and Dylan Baker, is a well acted, directed, written historical drama that largely succeeds in bringing to life one of the great political crises of the twentieth century.
THIRTEEN DAYS: A BRIEF SYNOPSIS
It’s mid-October, 1962. An American U-2 spy plane, making a routine reconnaissance flight over Cuba, snaps photographs of what appears to be offensive medium-range ballistic missiles being installed on that island by the Soviet Union.
The Kennedy administration’s first instinct is to react quickly… and violently. The day after the Soviet missiles are discovered, President John F. Kennedy (played by Bruce Greenwood) calls his cabinet into emergency session. Opinion around the table appears unanimous. The United States must not permit the Soviet Union to place offensive missiles 90 miles from her shores. The recommended course of action: launch immediate air strikes against the missile bases, followed by a ground invasion to make sure every potential missile launcher is destroyed. Among the most vociferous of Kennedy’s senior advisors favoring an immediate military response: former Secretary of State Dean Acheson; Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Maxwell Taylor (Bill Smitrovich); and Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway).
Kennedy initially favors this approach. Then… hesitation. Kennedy seeks counsel from his most trusted advisors. Attorney General Robert Kennedy (the President’s brother; played by Steven Culp) and Special Assistant Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner) point out that the possible consequences of a preemptive attack on Soviet missiles in Cuba might be too horrific to bear. The most likely scenario: America strikes the missiles in Cuba, destroying them but also killing many Soviet troops… the Soviets respond by attacking America’s worldwide interests, most likely Berlin… NATO fulfills its treaty obligations by attacking the Soviets… the Russians respond by launching a nuclear attack on the U.S. and its allies… the United States responds in kind…
Kennedy begins searching for alternative means of forcing the Soviets to disassemble the missiles and remove them from Cuba. While President Kennedy maintains his normal schedule and a calm public demeanor, Attorney General Kennedy, working around the clock and behind closed doors, argues, threatens, and cajoles the President’s cabinet into accepting a less belligerent, but no less risky, option: a naval blockade of Cuba.
The balance of Thirteen Days traces the historical events that followed. The U.S. implements its naval “quarantine” of the island. The Soviets challenge the quarantine by sending a score of cargo ships, protected by submarines, to run the blockade. Most of the Russian ships turn back when they reach the blockade line, but others do not. A “shooting war” nearly erupts. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers a “back channel” deal to the American government, but questions arise as to the deal’s authenticity. American reconnaissance flights over Cuba continue; they show the Soviet missile buildup as accelerating. So does the American military buildup. Finally, President Kennedy sets a deadline: the U.S. will launch air strikes against Soviet missile bases in Cuba in Monday, October 29, 1962. A ground invasion will follow eight days later.
How does the world avoid nuclear catastrophe? Watch the tense, thrilling conclusion to Thirteen Days to find out!
MY EVALUATION
I’ve watched Thirteen Days many, many times now, and each time, I’ve come away with decidedly mixed feelings about this film. There’s as much positive to say about it as there is negative:
The writing:Thirteen Days is a very well written film that largely succeeds in conveying the sense of urgency and palpable tension that existed within the Kennedy White House during these dark days. The film certainly has an air of historical authenticity about it.
Screen writer David Self based much of his material on a book entitled The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow. This book contains transcripts of secretly taped conversations that occurred inside the Oval Office and Cabinet Room during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s clearly apparent that many of the scenes in Thirteen Days are faithful reproductions of those taped conversations. Most of the historical events shown in the film – the discovery of the missiles; the decision to impose a naval blockade; the intense efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to the crisis (including UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson’s famous “don’t wait for the translation!” rejoinder to his Soviet counterpart, during a Security Council session) are well documented in history. So, it’s safe to say that Thirteen Days is a reasonably faithful distillation of what actually happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The film may be historically accurate, but how historically objective is it? In an industry with a predilection for political liberalism, how well do these filmmakers in particular resist the temptation to put a particular political “spin” on the events depicted in Thirteen Days? Here, I think, the film does not fare quite so well.
It’s hampered at the outset by the fact that the entire story is seen through the eyes of President Kennedy’s closest political advisor and friend, Kenny O’Donnell. It’s well known that O’Donnell, who died in 1977, practically hero-worshipped Kennedy, so it’s doubtful that anything he wrote would have been objective in nature.
I seriously question some of the obvious cinematic devices interspersed throughout the film. The initial tattoo of nuclear explosions – huge fireballs and mushroom clouds going off while the opening credits begin to roll; the start of some scenes in black-and-white; and even more nuclear fireballs erupting during the film – are all presumably designed to create and hold an atmosphere of tension, by reminding viewers of the high stakes of the game. These devices do more than that, however. When juxtaposed with the almost cartoonish militarism of Generals LeMay and Taylor, and Admiral George Anderson, they give the film a decided anti-military political slant.
In addition, the military leaders themselves are all painted as conniving to start a war they desperately want, and are only stopped by the courageous efforts of the brothers Kennedy and Kenny O’Donnell. From what I’ve read of history (and I read a lot of it), the military leadership during the Kennedy administration – and General Maxwell Taylor in particular – were extremely competent and always acted in a highly professional manner. So, the film’s subtle efforts to portray all military people as connivers and conspirators, especially in a situation where the stakes were so high, are inexcusable.
The film’s portrayal of John and Robert Kennedy is more sympathetic… and, oddly, more balanced. We see the Kennedys’ strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. President Kennedy is seen as a man genuinely desirous of peace, desperately searching for a way to avoid Armageddon. Yet, confronted with a series of life-and-death decisions, he seems at times almost paralyzed by indecisiveness. Robert Kennedy, Attorney General of the United States, comes off as idealistic, loyal, smart, competent… and at the same time ruthless, and willing to compromise his ethics for political advantage.
The acting: is, for the most part, pretty good throughout the film. Most impressive are Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp, whose portrayals of the Kennedy brothers are nothing short of masterful. Greenwood and Culp avoid turning their characters into caricatures by avoiding the temptation to do too much to either look or sound like the men they seek to portray. Ironically, the effect is that they bring an eerily lifelike “feel” to their characters.
Kevin Costner’s performance as Kenny O’Donnell is the one major disappointment in this film. To put it succinctly, he stinks up every scene in which he appears. His attempt to speak with a New England accent is absolutely ludicrous. As a lifelong resident of New England, I can state categorically that I cannot think of anyplace in this six-state region where people speak with the accent used by Costner.
Costner’s acting problems begin with the “accent,” but they don’t end there. He imbues his character with the same stiffness, colorlessness, and lifelessness that’s typical of all his work. He consistently sounds like he’s reading or reciting his lines, not speaking them naturally.
MY VERDICT
Despite Costner’s poor performance and some questions concerning the film’s historical objectivity, Thirteen Days remains a very good film. It successfully captures the tension and fear that pervaded not only the government, but society as a whole. It opens a window on the tough decision-making required from men untested in the crucible of history. And, it’s just plain good old fashioned entertainment to boot.
