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Thirteen days - Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, Kevin Costner, Roger Donaldson

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Cuba. 1962. You'll never believe how close we came.

For thirteen extraordinary days in October of 1962, the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe. Across the globe, people anxiously awaited the outcome of a harrowing political, diplomatic and military confrontation that threatened to end in an apocalyptic nuclear exchange between the USA and the USSR.

In Thirteen days, the power and peril of the American presidency is dramatically explored by director Roger Donaldson, who captures the urgency, suspense and paralysing chaos of the Cuban missile crisis.

The alarming escalation of events during those fateful days brought to the fore such public figures as Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker), Adlai Stevenson (Michael Fairman), Theodore Sorenson (Tim Kelleher), Andrei Gromyko, Anatoly Dobrynin, McGeorge Bundy (Frank Wood), Dean Acheson (Len Cariou), Dean Rusk (Henry Strozier) and General Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway). In addition many others - politicians, diplomats and soldiers - were on the front line of the showdown. In Thirteen days, we see all of these people - and, above all - President John F Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and his brother Bobby (Steven Culp), through the eyes of a trusted presidential aide and confidante, Kenneth P O'Donnell (Kevin Costner).

O'Donnell, who served as special assistant to the President, was a key White House insider with a bird's eye view of the crisis. His office was next door to the President's Oval Office and he was a major behind the scenes figure in the Kennedy White House. In the film, O'Donnell serves as a conduit to this gripping dramatisation of one of the most dangerous moments in modern history.

The film moves from the bitter debates that lingered within 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the skies above Cuba, where USA spy planes reveal the progressive missile build-up, and to the high seas, where a stand-off between USA and Soviet ships threatens to trigger war.

While mounting evidence suggests that the risk of a nuclear exchange was far greater than previously imagined, no one will ever know everything that happened behind closed doors at the White House but, drawing on numerous historical sources including White House tapes, memoirs, oral histories, CIA documents and personal interviews, screenwriter David Self has dramatised and woven together a story inspired by the events of October 1962 into a memorable thriller. Thirteen days is, at its heart, a story of men who, through a stunning and bold combination of force and diplomacy, attained their shining moment in what appeared to be the nation's darkest hour.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film history biography thriller Kennedy Cuba USSR Soviet nuclear missile

Persons of interest

Kevin Costner .... Kenny O'Donnell, Special Assistant to the President
Bruce Greenwood .... President John F Kennedy
Steven Culp .... Attorney General Robert F Kennedy
Dylan Baker .... Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defence
Michael Fairman .... Adlai Stevenson, US Ambassador to the UN
Henry Strozier .... Dean Rusk, Secretary of State
Frank Wood .... McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor
Kevin Conway .... General Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff
Tim Kelleher .... Ted Sorensen, Special Counsel to the President
Len Cariou .... Dean Acheson, Foreign Policy Advisor
Bill Smitrovich .... General Maxwell D Taylor, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
Dakin Matthews .... Arthur Lundhal
Madison Mason .... Admiral George Anderson
Christopher Lawford .... Commander William B Ecker, Mission Flight Leader
Ed Lauter .... Lieutenant General Marshall Carter
Elya Baskin .... Anotoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador
Boris Lee Krutonog .... Alexander Fomin, KGB Agent
Peter White .... John McCone, CIA Director
James Karen .... George Ball, Undersecretary of State
Olek Krupa .... Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Foreign Minister
Lucinda Jenney .... Helen O'Donnell
Oleg Vidov .... Valerian Zorin, Soviet Ambassador to the UN
Ernest R May .... Author: The Kennedy tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis
Philip D Zelikow .... Author: The Kennedy tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis
David Self .... Screenwriter
Roger Donaldson .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Awards and film festivals:

Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2002

See also Bobby
Studios and distributors:

New Line

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

You'll believe how close they came.

Even if you're not a fan of the Kennedy clan there's nothing you can do but watch in awe as the world stands on the brink of World War III while some people are behind, pushing and poking with sticks to make it cross the brink and fall into the abyss. Nuclear weapons are bad enough but worse are the idiots who have them. Even more worse are the idiots who want to use them.

Thirteen days is a scary thriller as much as it is a dramatised event because you come face to face with actual people who actually think that they can win a nuclear war. These are the same people who are running the USA military even as we speak. They are the people who invented "friendly fire" and "collateral damage". They ran the Gulf War and came up with catchy names like Desert shield and Desert storm. They send lumbering spy planes into Chinese air space. They have fingers on buttons all over the world.

Steven wins the Best Kennedy Award for his earnest and dedicated impersonation of Bobby. Bruce is good but doesn't have that special edge, while Kevin is Kevin, albeit with the flattened vowels of the clan. Together, they make a formidable triumvirate but not so formidable that there is no-one who dares to oppose them. The military hawks circle like hungry vultures, desperately seeking any sign of weakness. The Russians, largely kept out of the picture until the thrilling climax, are a mystical, almost mythical unknown. Then there are their own demons, riding hard on their shoulders, spurs, whips and all.

Thirteen days is a damned good fictionalisation of a true event, one that needed to be shown and which you really should see.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Disc: Double-sided
Features:

Commentary: Roger Donaldson, Kevin Costner, David Self, Michael Deluca (Executive producer)
Deleted scenes with commentary
Featurettes:

Roots of the Cuban missile crisis
Bringing history to the silver screen
The real players: video biographical sketches
Visual effects: Introduction to visual effects and computer generated photo-realistic flight

Filmographies: Cast and crew
Historical commentary: John F Kennedy, Sergei Khrushchev, Ernest R May, Philip D Zelikow, Pierre Salinger
Historical figures biographical gallery

Languages: English
Picture: Widescreen 19:9 enhanced 1.85:1
Subtitles: English captions
Trailers: Theatrical