Elmer Fudd saves the world

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2001)

It's hard to imagine. The fate of the world in the hands of the Kennedy brothers and some joe named Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner, sounding eerily like Elmer Fudd at times). These three were apparently the White House inner inner circle.
My own knowledge of the events is fuzzy. I hate to call this film educational, but it's now the account of the Cuban Missile Crisis that I will remember. It makes me want to read more about it, to see what's true and what isn't. Hopefully others won't be so quick to accept the film as gospel and look upon it as what it really is: entertainment.
Like any Hollywood movie with a Kennedy in it, Jack and Bobby are treated as infallible protectors of everything good. No other president has more stories surrounding him, more speculation about his personal life and beliefs. When Bruce Greenwood (in the best performance of the film) tells O'Donnell, kiddingly, that he wishes "someone else were president", we'd understand if he meant it. Hollywood has us believing the world would be a better place had JFK survived longer than three years in office. Kennedy's clashes with the military establishment is used for drama in "Thirteen Days", but doesn't take over the story. It's the cat-and-mouse game, the fact that these three men seem able only to trust each other, that makes the film so compelling.
The Crisis is so important because it's the one time in history where the world really seemed to be on the brink of nuclear annihilation. There was a chance, however small, that something could go wrong. "Cooler heads" might not prevail. "Thirteen Days" takes you inside of it, giving you things like the White House staff's reactions to Adlai Stevenson's "til hell freezes over" declaration to the Soviet U.N. delegate. Even if things didn't happen exactly this way, you see what it must have been like. Accurately depicted is the weight of the situation. You can feel the life-or-death quality of each decision these men faced.
Lest we forget that there are still enough nuclear weapons in silos around the world to destroy it twenty times over, the film is some timely food for thought.
Grade: B