Shamefully Underrated

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2005)

Like many, I was nervous to hear that Kevin Costner was gonna be in a Cuban Missle Crisis flick, with a Bostonian accent no less! But don't let this scare you off! "Thirteen Days" is one great, very historically accurate movie. Now obviously there are parts that are dramaticized as this is a movie about those 13 days back in the 60's largely told through the walls of the Kennedy White House. As one born in the mid 70's, I knew about as much about the history of these events as most my age and went into the theater mostly ignorant to the details. I walked out thinking about the tagline; "Not believing how close we came" to World War III. But how accurate was it really? God love the Internet for research!
Aside from the dramatization, this movie is very close to the facts as far as the government will let us know. I watched this with my parents who actually lived through the days of Air Raid drills in case "those Commies" attacked from Cuba. They were struck by how much of their experiences it brought back. But the best part of this movie is the Kennedys themselves. Being as that JFK and RFK were real people and VERY ingrained in our minds of how they were, the task of making them believable on screen is no easy task! Kudos to Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp for performances that make it easier to slip into the movie instead of glaring at us as actors playing those famous figures. In fact it is easy to perhaps think that this is a documentary as opposed to a Hollywood movie. But Hollywood-ized it isn't. This is a slick film, but not glossy like the Bruckheimer or Ridley Scotts can make.
At 3 hours in length...prepare yourselves for numb fannies! But for those who love history, this brings something from my 8th grade textbook to life unlike anything else I've seen from "modern history."
GOOD- The Kennedys, attention to detail, how this film makes me WANT to see what happens...even though it is well documented history.
BAD- Costner's accent (though its not that bad, just unbelievable as we know him too well), the numb butts after 3 hrs.