Great movie, Costner a little dull

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2000)

As a member of the University of Rochester's student body, I was graced with a preview screening of "Thirteen Days," starring Kevin Costner in the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. Aside from a few technical difficulties (since it is a preview screening, they receive the movie by satellite uplink--the weather tonight was horrible, so the sound and picture cut out in a few key scenes), I thought it was a very well-done and entertaining movie. The majority of the movie concentrated on people's discussions and interactions during the ordeal, rather than the scenes of military mobilization. Some would probably complain that they had too many people sitting around in rooms talking and not enough scenes of engagement. However, it never got boring. All the politics and back and forth deals, coupled with the occasional military encounter, provided for a very tense, edge-of-your seat movie. The few military scenes that were in it were extremely well done, especially the views of the planes flying low over Cuba. I felt that the actor playing RFK did the best job of interpreting his character. The actor playing JFK didn't look or sound enough like JFK for me, but RFK was right on the nose. Of course, I don't know the actual person that Kevin Costner was playing, but his Boston accent was slightly annoying, coming from him. It would probably have been better if he were played instead by an unknown actor, to shift the focus somewhat off of his character. He was probably the thing I disliked most about the movie--he just didn't fit. Since this was only a preview screening, there were some problems with the editing that I assume will be fixed in the final version. In one scene, there was a barely visible boom mike on the side. Plus, there was a short scene that made no sense and had no bearing on the movie that I assume will be cut from the final version (it was a 2-hour 20 minute movie). That coupled with the fact that there were several technical difficulties and it was an excellent movie means that I will definitely be seeing it again when it comes out :). One thing I'm not certain on is the historical accuracy. Of course I've read textbooks that describe the events, but living through it would have been a different experience completely. I felt, while watching it, that not knowing exactly how the events turned out heightened the tension. Since a lot of viewers have lived through it and watched each event play by play, it won't be as much of a thrill ride. But by that same virtue, I don't know if everything in it was accurate. From what I know of the actual historical events, which I must point out is relatively little, it was accurate. The extent of my knowledge was that there were missiles in Cuba, and we almost got nuked over it :). Overall a great movie, exciting and thrilling but not relying on its action scenes for all the excitement. Kevin Costner wasn't great, but he's been on the decline the last few years and this was better than some of his recent stuff, so I've got to give him props for that. My rating is an 8 out of 10