Cosner gets up close and personal with the Kennedy's

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2002)

*Spoiler Alert for those that slept during history lessons*
A recreation of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis told from inside the White House. History on film. Deep breath. Pause. First they want to you to write essays about it at school, now they expect you to pay for it at the box office!

I am Mr Average. I know as much about the Cuban Missile Crisis as the next Mr Average. Maybe slightly more due to my Longman Chronicle of the 20th Century - a great book, not only allows you to learn about history it also doubles as an exercise weight.
Given that we ALL know that the world didn't have World War III we are left with the "how close did we come?" as the central question.

Kevin Cosner is the star of this show as the (special) Kennedy presidential advisor and Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp star as John F Kennedy and Bobby F Kennedy respectively. I don't understand American accents, so I am not (unlike other reviewers) able to say whether they are authentic vocal performances.
We don't see the Soviet authority - merely the top spy (worked out by Cosner in a spare moment!) and ambassador. How serious were the Soviets? Were they playing games? Were they trying out a new and ridiculously young President to see how far he would go? Don't look for answers here.

Did Kennedy struggle to keep control of the military? The film says yes - but I'm not sure about this either. Without this another plank of the drama is removed, leaving us even more dramatically threadbare. Certainly the CIA didn't trust Kennedy and his habit of disappearing with women (putting him out of contact with them) left the US exposed for short periods.
Missiles in Turkey were removed, as part of the final deal, only the American public was not told about it for quite some time. Some argue that America was going to remove them - as they became obsolete - on cost grounds, so little was given away in the long run. Here the film fudges and seems to give the impression that this may have been the intention - but a final decision had not been taken.
Great history doesn't always make great drama and I'm sorry to say this came across as a bit sterile. Good effort though. Maybe we would have been better off with a documentary - especially if we had the Soviet side of things.