Overrated, misses the point

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2007)

A decent thriller with some above-average acting based on the events of the Cubamn Missile Crisis. However, like so many film treatments of JFK and Bobby Kennedy - this is way too much of a puff piece and just adds to the absurd glorification of the very human, very flawed Kennedys. Utterly ignored here is how, in the end, Kennedy actually was bettered by the Sovs. The Sovs wanted to get the US missiles out of Turkey from all this. What did they get? US missiles out of Turkey. JFK gave in. Period. Another couple of weeks of the embargo and he would have won an unmitigated victory. Much like in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, JFK was a staunch cold-warrior...until it was time to ante up and act like a man. The guy had no follow-through and the devious, wimpy advice of his slippery brother / Attorney General (Holy Neoptism, Batman!) is at least partially to blame.