Gripping, tension-filled

Rating: 9/10 (13 January 2001)

In October 1962, I was 11 years old and a 6th grader at Nottingham Elementary School in Arlington, VA, a suburb of Washington DC. I still recall the terror that swept the school as we were required to store Metriacal (sp?) and bottled water in our lockers and practice bomb drills by diving under our desks and huddling in the hallways. We knew enough about politics and international affairs to know that DC would be the first city hit with missiles, even though I do recall it was one of the first times I ever rooted for New York to win anything!
The movie did an excellent job of recapturing this terror. While flawed by an inept effort to put a Boston accent on Kevin Costner, the trio of JFK, Bobby & Costner (Kenny O'Donnell) worked extremely well together. Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy) played a very believable JFK, while Steven Culp did a fine job playing a less-than-impressive RFK. You really felt the tension that JFK must have lived as he was making some of the most critical decisions that any president has ever had to make.
The old, tired, military brass and advisors did a fine collective job of trying to convince the `damn Kennedys' that we oughta bomb em back to the Stone Age.' Curtis LeMay was as scary as I remember him, and there was an excellent shouting scene between Robert McNamara and a Navy admiral.
The movie proved that, like Apollo 13, you CAN make a gripping movie even though you know how it begins and how it ends. 9 of 10 stars.