Thirteen Days [DVD] [2001]

In short, this is the best dramatisation in existence of JFK's presidential term. Although it was slammed by some critics for taking liberties with historical fact (namely Kenny O'Donnell filling in for numerous other presidential aids), this film is remarkably accurate and manages to maintain a strong air of suspense. To most people, the Cuban Missle Crisis is nothing but a paragraph in an old history text book but Thirteen Days brings it to life perfectly.
Kevin Costner's Boston accent is a little too strong in some scenes. We all know this, he's so bad at accents it's almost funny (see Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) but that hardly derives from the film as a whole thanks to his excellent co-stars.
Steven Culp is utterly convincing as the slightly awkward Attorney General Robert Kennedy but it is Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood who should have got an Oscar nomination (the film recieved none due to it's lack of box office success). Greenwood nails the mannerisms and actions of JFK flawlessly and shows Kennedy as a man plagued by huge decisions, each of which could be fatal for all concerned (ie everyone).
Thirteen Days is a superbly made film which will impress you whatever you may think about Kevin Costner.
I'm also recommending the soundtrack

Sometimes Kevin Costner just can't be told. On Tin Cup he couldn't be told that a scene of him beating a security guard to a bloody pulp because he forgot his ID card wasn't going to endear him to the audience in a romcom (I never saw the finished film, but I believe the preview audiences succeeded in getting that scene cut). In The Postman he couldn't be told that ending a film with a statue of him being unveiled was really not a good idea. At all. And in Thirteen Days he couldn't be told that adopting a Boston accent was not a good idea when it makes him sound just like Elmer Fudd. For the first quarter of an hour you're just waiting for him to say "Be wewwy, wewwy qwuiet. I'm hunting Wussian Miss-eyells." So it's a testament to the strength of the film that it survives that hurdle and emerges as a gripping thriller even though we all know the ending.

Although Costner gets top billing, the film really belongs to Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp as JFK and Bobby Kennedy, avoiding impersonation (and the accent) to give quite superb performances. While the film is occasionally guilty of overglamorizing the dynamic duo, it's surprising to see just how little control they were able to exercise over the Chiefs of Staff who seemed hell-bent on escalating the Cuban Missile Crisis into a full-scale invasion. Considering the final result, it seems particularly timely now to see a drama about a US President desperate to avoid a pointless war over weapons of mass destruction that he knew did exist at a time when we have a US President who was desperate to start a pointless war over weapons that he knew didn't exist: for all the corruption, spin and dilettantism of the Kennedy administration, this was one of those fortuitous examples of the right leader at the right time.

The film certainly manages to pull off the rare achievement of instilling a real sense of pride not in action but in diplomacy, with most of the drama taking place in conference rooms (although there are a couple of genuinely exciting pieces of filmmaking in the spy flights over Cuba). Indeed, perhaps the most genuinely stirring moment is Adlai Stevenson calling the Russian ambassador's bluff at the UN, the sort of thing which doesn't exactly pull in the kids at the multiplex. This doesn't always pay dividends, however. The biggest problem is that it loses tension by being so confined to the political and military players: there's no sense of the very real fear that spread throughout the world that this really was IT and that the mushroom clouds would start sprouting any minute. As a result the movie does begin to lose its grip towards the end, and doesn't entirely dodge mawkishness. The sporadic early shifts from color to black and white are a real failure, too. With the archive footage in color, there simply seems no reason for them, and they seem to have been thrown in arbitrarily purely to give it an imagined cutting edge. Still, they're fairly minor flaws in an impressive thriller.

The extras package is truly excellent, especially the 50-minute historical documentary and video portraits of the real key players. Well worth picking up.

This film tells the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60's from within The White House.
Brilliantly acted by the 3 main leads (once you get over Costners irritating voice - which I assume was accurate), the film is a very interesting look at the 13 days that nearly changed the face of the world we live in now. Its interesting to see exactly how close 'we' came to nuclear war.
Only a couple of criticisms of the film is that (for me) the tension didn't build. Thats partly because we 'know' the end result, however i feel it could still have been cranked up a bit. And it would seem everytime the director introduces another historical figure, it all goes black and white??? The first time this happened, I assumed my dvd was faulty.
As for accuracy - who knows, Hollywood has a knack for 'exaggeration' during historical retellings, and it did feel a little 'too' pro-US (the Russians cant have been COMPLETELY to blame surely?) but either way, this is a very interesting, well acted and enjoyable movie.