Nuclear War - everyone’s horror scenario, but did you know just how close the world came to global destruction in 1962?
Few of us alive today are even aware of the events that took place in October 1962 - yet this was without a doubt one of the most important and critical crisis of the 20th century. If things had gone differently none of us might be here today.
THIRTEEN DAYS attempts to recreate the events of those days from within the White House, during the JFK administration. The story itself, is viewed though the eyes of President Kennedy’s special advisor Kenny O’Donnell (played by Kevin Costner).
The cold war is at its peak between the USA and the Soviet union. The mutual mistrust of the two world super powers has put security issues on a knife edge. It is discovered that the Russians have deployed ICBM nuclear missiles on Cuba. This is obviously a serious threat to American National Security - the range of the missiles couple put virtually any US City under threat.
At all costs, the missiles must be removed or destroyed. As the days pass the tension mounts and with each gambit that is played, the stakes become higher and higher in this intricate game of deadly ’poker’. Until a point of no return is reached and unless a solution can be found the world is 24hrs away from nuclear war.
As you all must realise by now (otherwise we wouldn’t be her…doh !) a solution was found at the 11th hour. And war was averted. But that takes nothing away from the fact that the detail in this movie is quite superb. Three brilliant performances from Costner as key advisor O’ Donnell (his actual part in events was not as major as this film portrays, but it is key to the plot), Bruce Greenwood as President Kennedy and Steven Culp as Bobby Kennedy, in the main roles.
Greenwood, in particular, is superb. The strains and sheer mental torture Kennedy must have gone through as he fought to hold back his own Military ’Hawks’, while trying to maintain a stance that did not give the Russians a sign of US weakness. He is the final arbiter – the man with his finger on the button and must weigh up the pros and cons and not be dissuaded from seeing what one action may lead to. The film shows how close he came to ‘caving in’ and also how just a small error of judgement would have sent us all into oblivion.
This is a very historically accurate film – which makes a change bearing in mind what Hollywood usually do to ‘history’. Recently released transcriptions of actual conversations and letters were used to complete the excellent screenplay by David Self. The sets are accurate with a faithful recreation of the White House interiors, the location and use of planes and warships that were actually used during the crisis too.
Roger Donaldson’s direction keeps the action and interaction riveting after a somewhat ponderous opening half hour. But once ‘into’ the film, it certainly maintains your attention. The opening credits are scrolled over nuclear explosions – and that is a theme throughout the film. At the finish, you here the actual words of JFK himself.
This is a powerful film – but quite long at 2 hours 25 mins. Stick with it. It’s worth it in the end – although the scenes that are played out by Costner with his wife and family, I felt, could have been dispensed with. I assume they were trying to show the ‘human’ side of the situation, but they only go to slow the action and put a pause on a superb political ‘pot boiler’.
To sum up – This is one of those films that should be required viewing for the younger generation throughout the world. It shows how close we’ve come already to mutual annihilation – to stand on the precipice of destruction, but pull back. Present day politicians could learn much from this too – let’s hope so, otherwise, one day we may all pay the ultimate price - a chilling and sobering thought.
• POSTSCRIPT - This review of this particular movie is especially apt given the current ’post-New York terrorists’ situation. With retaliation and retribution in mins for the US to avenge the horrific losses of last Tuesday, I hope that before they go ’gung-ho’ someone just casts their minds back to this particular crisis in 1962.
We may be equally ’on the brink’ right now