action as communication good, accent on Costner bad

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2001)

OK we waited to see this one. We held our breaths and hoped for best. When Hollywood does history this is an honest reaction. The story comes out pretty good. Perhaps the best line in the movie after "the other guy blinked" is from Robert McNamara while browbeating the anxious admiral, something to the effect of "this isn't a blockade, this is the President of the United States communicating with Premier Khruschev." It is a wonderful line and in an era without instant communication a very important realization.
So what was wrong? In a word, Costner. His accent is annoying and his character really superfluous. He regularly talks to the Kennedy brothers as though they were children instead of the most powerful men in the world. A little more deference to authority and a little more respect for their intelligence or else a little more historic background to make us understand that these fantastic brothers were not as smart as their staffer.
The military come off as conniving and self serving, but then that is one view of men whose whole job it is to be ready to fight and not appease an enemy. The distrust of Kennedy, especially in light of the Bay of Pigs was probably real, but I would have loved more fiction here, it would have been nice to see Gen Curtis LeMay pinned down for insubordination, but then it never happened and I am the one who likes accuracy, c'est dommage.