"Thirteen Days" (2000) - Movie Review

Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner) out of frustration says “Communicate with the Soviets? We can't even communicate with the Pentagon. And they're just across the goddamn river.” This is “Thirteen Days” wherein President Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) not alone was in dire situation to tackle the missile developments in Cuba by Soviet Union in the October of 1962 but also played a calm and composed leader in handling his Staff of Joint Chief. The movie focuses on those situations. The Staff of Joint Chief are in the mode to strike first before the Soviets make the first move. Their aggravation is the urgency to act fast and they believe that Kennedy is soft to handle a situation like this. The film is about those crucial days when not alone America feared the end of it but as the whole world would have entered the age of nuclear war.

As we all know that did not happen and hence the movie’s end is pretty much out. But what director Roger Donaldson shows is not about the end but how it came to that situation. While everyone know that the high authority tackling took place, the film shows how far it went in to play a vital role in bringing peace without any major destruction to the world. It convincingly gives the games of pressure and back door methods played to avoid any kind of act leading to war. It also shows how one needs to go against the values and morals to save the lives of millions. At that moment it seems right and even justified. The pace at which the movie takes place while may seem due to the screenplay, the events itself seem to have happened in complete randomness and chaos. Donaldson channels it in the right way to provide a thriller which is shockingly real and also the scrutiny of maintaining peace over war.

The movie is strong and appealing due to the fact of the three strong willed characters. President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp) and the then special assistant to the President, Kenny O’Donnell. Their chemistry in real life was close and strong. The same has been maintained by the performers in this film. They do not compromise the characterization in order to bring in the drama. It is amazing to see how Kevin Costner lets him underplay which the role demanded. If at any point of time he enacted some kind of slightest authority as an actor, the momentum and the credibility would have been lost miserably. Instead he provides the fulcrum in between the brothers played brilliantly by other actors as well to anchor down the content of the battle in between having a war and a peace.

The film is the reminder of how easy it is to destruct than to create. If either party would have decided to go through with the attack, the result of destruction would have been equal and unimaginable. It would have been the crucifixion of innocence. Victory and courage are considered by the indication of the aggression and suppression. The world dominated most of the part by men believes in those rather than calmness and peace. This film is the example of victory and courage getting the recognition in terms of saving lives not in a battle field but in a real world embedded with energy of destruction rather than flourish.

The sequences of the nuclear missiles being built upon are given to provide the progress and also the intensity of the situation. The movie does not want to corner itself in four walls of constant argument of pressures but to expand itself outside it whenever it is necessary. At the same time, it does not cringe into the over emotional scenes of portraying each human beings’ fear to face the end. They draw the line where it is needed and play inside those territories. They do not fancy themselves with dialogues out of proportion but decorate it with substance and ingenuity. This is the movie which might seem as a perspective of US over the Soviet Union but it magnifies the problem inside the walls itself. The funny part is both parties disagreeing on the methods want the people to be safe but the approach is different. The difference is the movie of those tensed days when humans stood and for a second “blinked” inside the nightmares of destruction. Glad it was a blink.