Review of Thirteen Days (2000) by Tomas T — 04 Nov 2012

Dramatization of Cuban Missile crisis in the 1962, Thirteen Days, turned out to be highly interesting - but not perfect - political thriller.

First of all it must be stated that the director Roger Donaldson could not have chosen a better subject for his political thriller than Cuban Missile crisis. After all, never before/since has the modern civilization been so close to total destruction than with the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962. As the tittle suggests, the film focuses on the nerve wrecking 13 days it took for America and Soviet Union to solve a world class political crisis surrounding Soviet Union's attempt to arm Cuba with nuclear missiles. The film focuses on American point of view of the crisis, especially with the interaction between president John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and his top assistants Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner) and Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp). The acting is solid through the film and I especially enjoyed how well the film depicted sense of urgency, fear of unknown future and how information rules the modern world.

Thirteen days is a good political thriller with couple setbacks: Firstly the film is quite slow paced - something I did not consider a bad thing - and undoubtedly the long running time is tedious for some of the viewers. However what stuck me most was the rather blatant script hiccup in the middle of the film which made one think the film is over, where in fact there was still half of the running time left. Even so Thirteen Days is a successful depiction of one of the most severe crisis the world has faced and makes one think the absurdity of nuclear weapons in general.