Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (19 February 2001)

I found 13 days disappointing.
I was in my 20's during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and well remember what a riveting event it was. Everybody at the time knew that the world was on the brink of nuclear war, and everybody breathed a very deep sigh of relief when it was over. The world had been so terrifyingly close to the Apocalypse!
We'll never knew exactly how the crisis was handled, in Washington and Moscow, but I'm fully prepared to give the late President Kennedy and Secretary Khruschev full marks for drawing us all back from the edge of the abyss. It was a horrifyingly difficult crisis to deal with, as the US-USSR stance had been highly adversarial for decades, there was no direct communication between the US and USSR leadership at the time, and both sides had military complexes chomping at the bit for a resolution of the problem through military means.
I didn't find "13 Days" a satisfying re-telling of the story. I found the script, casting and editing weak, and the movie about half an hour too long. The top military men were presented as intemperate juveniles, and all the top military and political figures (with the exception of the O'Donnell character) were completely lacking in subtlety, gravitas and depth. Others have commented on Costner's now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't accent.
What made the Cuban Missile Crisis such a horror was that neither side knew what the other was thinking or would do. The movie lacked all sense of that.
The movie also didn't convey how very concerned all we ordinary folk were about the whole terrifying situation.
I give it 5 out of 10.