Impressive history, just a tad too much Hollywood drama

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2001)

My history prof in high-school told us that during the missile crisis, he and his college friends were preparing for a nuclear war between the US and Russia. I can't imagine that now: even though we countries all around have nuclear capabilities, and the US military stubbornly refuses to sign the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, being so eager to develop "the next generation" of nuclear weapons,(one generation I think we can all agree requires an immediate abortion.) Roger Donaldson's Thirteen Days has definite flaws- First, he should have killed the Costner family angle: Costner's character could have served as an illustrative link to the popular reaction to the crisis. The moment he sees the line-up for confessions holds greater impact than any family scene. 2. The music by Trevor Jones (composer of the Last of the Mohicans) at first brings up the tension, but after an hour or so, you're bored by its constant reminder of the importance of events. With more silence or a gradual build-up, the score could have been more effective. 3. There's no clear need for those b&w sequences- it really didn't serve a purpose. 4.What the film really needs at the end is a summation of where the central characters ended up- put a photo of the actor and real-life character up with a post-crisis bio. (Hell, McNamara got us into Vietnam!) I applaud Thirteen Days because it treats history as a subject for drama, realizing that truth is stranger than fiction. It also is a film that celebrates victory in peace not battles. I think we'll soon be seeing the exact opposite with Pearl Harbor, which I fear will ignore our oppressive decision to ship Japanese Americans into concentration camps during the war.
Thirteen Days presents JFK and RFK as regular men in extreme circumstances, heroes only by way of heroic decision-making. The supporting cast perform very credibly, though this is easier since the majority of audiences won't remember McNamara, Adlai Stevenson, Acheson, or LeMay. Regardless, the B&W TV broadcasts of JFK and Stevenson are very effective: people in my audience were applauding when Adlai said, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over!"
Likewise, Donaldson brings great tension to the air&sea military sequences, combining newsreels, computer graphics, and action scenes. For a film that visually often seemed to have a TV-movie feel, the U2 flights and Pearce conflicts rocked. For a moment when McNamara (excellent acting) went against the Admiral on the blockade decisions, I felt like I was watching Hunt For Red October. I wonder if that's a problem of this film: this unique historical moment feels here like a hodgepodge of other movies: shades of Independence Day, (the coming attack, national speech, and preparation), Apollo 13 (how can we negotiate the solution to this crisis?), and JFK (the conspiracy of the military against the lone peaceful warrior.) Admittedly, when you give a more Hollywood feel to history, you might add to the overall resonance, but do you lose credibility in exchange?
I'd nominate David Self for best Adapted Screenplay, taking the White House tapes and making for totally engrossing dialogues. The film effectively impresses the importance of the decisions and influence of every man in the Oval Office those thirteen days. Hopefully, our new president would also do more than nod to the judgment of Old Guard military solutions and look to his own good will, if faced with such a crisis in the years to come. ***