Thirteen Days Reviews

The trouble with history is we all know how it ends. The fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was defused pretty much goes without saying, given that we're all still here. But Roger Donaldson's account of the tense two weeks when it looked as though America and the USSR were going to start a global nuclear war is thoroughly gripping. It recalls equally such jittery cold war thrillers as FAIL SAFE and DR. STRANGELOVE (with the obvious difference that the crisis is averted) and a particularly testosterone-fueled episode of TV's The West Wing, all clean-cut men in suits barking at each other. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 begins on October 16, when U.S. surveillance photos detect Russian-built missiles in Cuba, a worrying 90 miles off the Florida coast. That this is no minor matter becomes quickly apparent, and the government is on alert in a matter of hours. The daunting list of key players includes President Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy (Steven Culp), Special Assistant to the President Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker), Secretary of State Dean Rusk (Henry Strozier), Special Assistant for National Security Affairs McGeorge Bundy (Frank Wood) and Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson (Michael Fairman). While the military brass argue that the Soviets only understand force, Kennedy is reluctant to start the world on a path that will lead inevitably to nuclear annihilation, a position secretly perceived by some of his own advisers as weak. Shots of planes, missiles, warships and ominous nuclear clouds notwithstanding, the real action unfolds in a series of smoky rooms whose claustrophobia is suffocating. This is a work of fact-based fiction, not a documentary; the script no doubt takes liberties with the details. But it effectively evokes the terror of the time for viewers too young to remember a near-disaster far scarier than any imaginary apocalypse involving rogue meteors or hostile extraterrestrials.