Comments on: Review: Thirteen Days

By: Andrew James

Andrew James — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:10:10 +0000

Yeah it’s cheesy, but the whole film is filled with that stuff. But it works as a character builder side by side with the drama. For me all of the best parts are Bobby, John and Kerry having their own little heart to heart discussions and decision making behind the scenes. Also, the full board room meetings are great with the various scenarios and “what ifs.”

By: rot

rot — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:43:26 +0000

no the cheesiest scene is O’Donnell sitting at the kitchen table and telling his family about how fortunate they are to see the sun. There are a few of these painfully wrought moments in the film, but the rest of the film is pretty solid.

My favorite scene is when O’Donnell and JFK are talking right before his TV broadcast, and Kennedy talks about having slept soundly the night before and for a moment woke up and hadn’t the slightest memory of their being any conflict. I don’t know why but that scene worked for me dramatically, made the characters a bit more human.

I watched Thirteen Days back to back with Fog of War, its worth doing if you can, to see the two McNamaras side by side. Though I have to say even though LeMay seems like a parody in the film, by McNamara’s own accounts he was that kind of no-nonsense warmonger.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:27:35 +0000

I used to like this alot, but the last time I saw the length really bothered me, and much of the cheese stood out more than I remembered it.

I don’t think you need to be an apologist to like Kevin Costner. I think he’s a good actor, and a decent director.

Andrew, the scene you are describing is probably the cheesiest and most Hollywood moment in the film! Geez…

I like Kennedy quite a bit though. Two shots man, *facepalm*.

By: Andrew James

Andrew James — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:38:37 +0000

Agreed. I think I like the film even more than you did. And you nailed it by mentioning the tag line for the movie. Sure we all know we were close, but until I saw this movie (putting aside historical accuracy – and I don’t care about that for this movie to work), I never knew how close we came.

The suspense is built and built and the decisions faced by the protagonists are not ones I would’ve cared to have made. It makes for great war games – both internally within the White House and a game of wits (and balls) with the Russians.

The performances just sell the rest of the movie. Greenwood and Culp play their roles perfectly. And I’ve said it a million times that I’m a Costner apologist. And he’s great here too – in fact this is probably in my top three movies he’s in.

There’s one scene in particular in the Oval Office in which Kennedy is retreating to his desk and LeMay attempts to follow him behind the desk and Costner gets right in his face by simply standing up with a stern look. For some reason I always liked that wordless battle.