Thirteen Days (2001) * * *

Directed by:  Roger Donaldson

Starring:  Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker, Kevin Conway

The world stood on the brink of nuclear war during two weeks in the fall of 1962.    This may sound hyperbolic, but this was the case when the USSR began building missiles, which if launched could wipe out millions of Americans, in Cuba.     The American response would've been to annihilate millions of Soviets with its missiles.     There was always the threat of such drastic action during the Cold War, however unlikely it may have seemed.     After all, what good would it do to virtually destroy each other?    During the Cuban Missile Crisis, we nearly had to deal with such a question for real rather than hypothetically.

Thirteen Days portrays the internal battles that went on in the White House during that time.    President John F. Kennedy (Greenwood) faced not only the dreary prospect of causing the deaths of millions with one launch order, but the mounting pressure of his Joint Chiefs of Staff who were itching for a fight to issue such an order.    War dogs such as Gen. Curtis Lemay (Conway) and other military hardliners wanted to go to war.     Kennedy, accompanied by his attorney general brother Robert (Culp), and his special assistant Kenneth O' Donnell (Costner), weren't so eager and for completely understandable reasons.     The generals saw the crisis as a chance to finally use their  military arsenal and flex their muscle, as if somehow such a move would result in any sort of meaningful victory.    They didn't care.     Kennedy did.    His job was to stare down his own generals as much as it was to stare down the Soviets.     The decision fell on Kennedy as commander-in-chief to make the call and history would have reflected that he made the decision to wipe out millions of lives.    This was not something Kennedy took lightly, and rightfully so.

We see the political maneuverings, the choosing up of sides, and both sides digging their heels in.    The President has the ultimate decision, but that doesn't mean others can't (or won't) try to influence him.     The Kennedys and O'Donnell see the alternative possibility of diplomacy with Soviet leaders, which are largely unseen in the film except at crucial moments.     The movie doesn't take the easy way out and make the generals villains and the Kennedys heroes.    Neither group knows exactly how to handle such an unprecedented situation and rely on their experience to navigate through it.     Thirteen Days doesn't take sides, although we know now what the correct side was.     The players in the film don't have the luxury of history.

Costner is the star of the film, but his character isn't necessarily the focal point.    He does his due diligence in support of his longtime friends, including making calls to Air Force pilots running spy missions and asking them not to get shot down.     You have to read between the lines to understand what he is actually saying to the pilots without expressly saying it.     Thirteen Days correctly shifts the focus to the President and his brother, who stand to lose the most politically if they make the wrong move.     The rest of the world stood to lose even more.     Greenwood, a strong character actor, gives us a strong-willed, thoughtful Kennedy who convinces us of the sometimes overwhelming internal pressure cooker going on inside.     He makes a convincing Kennedy, which isn't easy to do.  

O' Donnell has a family, but is rarely home during the two weeks.    His scenes with his family feel obligatory and slow things down.    The movie could have not even mentioned his family and we would have been none the wiser.    Jackie and Ethel Kennedy remain unseen and the movie doesn't suffer because of it.    Thirteen Days is an excerpt of an unsure period in which the world faced an unprecedented threat.     The people do the best they can according to their natures and the information presented.     As the film ends, we see the Kennedys and O'Donnell walking outside, catching their respective breaths and discussing the future, which ended much too hastily for them.     It is unsettling to realize that John would be dead in a little over a year and his brother five years after that.