American History takes it on the chin again!

Rating: 6/10 (15 July 2001)

So now we know that JFK simply could not have handled the Cuban Missile Crises without the sage advice of Kenny O'Donnell!? Bull! O'Donnell was more Court Jester than senior adviser. He was a friend that JFK was comfortable with, who aided and abetted Kennedy's womanizing, and who was most probably not nearly so involved in the crises as this film would have us believe. And where the hell was LBJ? Lyndon was, after all, the Vice-President; and a loud, boorish, aggressive one at that. He was a Hawk on the Missile crises. To reduce the character to a couple of throw away lines is just plain silly. Then there is poor, misunderstood Bobby, tired of being called ruthless. Even Old Joe Kennedy said Bobby was "the most like me, hard as nails". The military has been held up to disdain and ridicule in Hollywood for quite some time now, so that aspect should come as no surprise. It is a shame that so many American kids will get a distorted picture of historic events from films like this and Pearl Harbor. It is, unfortunately, just one more symptom of the continued dumbing down of the country.
The more you know about the actual events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crises, the sillier this film will be for you.