Featured Audience Ratings

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"If the sun comes up tomorrow, it is only because of men of good will. And that's - that's all there is between us and the devil."</i> A dramatization of President Kennedy's administration's struggle to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis in… More
  <i>"If the sun comes up tomorrow, it is only because of men of good will. And that's - that's all there is between us and the devil."</i> A dramatization of President Kennedy's administration's struggle to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> In the 1960's few realized how close the world came to Nuclear Winter. Even today, with all the resources at hand, fewer care who prevented the Third World War. One thing is certain, America was enormously fortunate to have had as President of the United States, John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) during those nearly fatal "Thirteen Days." As the thinking man's president, Mr. Kennedy was lucky to have in his cabinet men of intellect and reason. His main confidante was his younger brother, Robert Kennedy (Steven Culp) who proved invaluable as Attorney General. When the world learned of the Nuclear threat ninety miles away, Kennedy came to rely heavily on his political adviser Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner) who displayed cautious insight and prudent judgment in critical moments which could have proved disastrous had the Joint Chiefs of Staff gotten their way. Further, Kennedy was definitely fortunate to have selected as his ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson (Michael Fairman) who stood toe to toe with Russian's Valerian Zorin (Oleg Vidov) and did not back down. The film is dramatic and terrifyingly accurate with dated Black and White footage and actual verbal scripts from hidden recordings from the oval office. What we know today is; had the Administration followed the prodding of the military, they would have initiated the Third World War as the Russian military in Cuba, actually had short range Atomic warheads at their disposal. This is a frightening film for rational people.

• Jameson W

  
  Great film! A movie that I've watched at school that was legit, not a lame educational movie. A very good adaptation of the drama and conflict behind the Cuban Missle Crisis. Fueled mostly by great performances and powerful dialogue, this film is a great historical drama. The… More
  Great film! A movie that I've watched at school that was legit, not a lame educational movie. A very good adaptation of the drama and conflict behind the Cuban Missle Crisis. Fueled mostly by great performances and powerful dialogue, this film is a great historical drama. The emotion and intensity in the story is very believable. We truly were on the brink of war, and this film I believe captures a realistic look into what occured. I recommend this film to everyone, especially History buffs.

• Jeff "

  
  As far as I'm concerned, this is director Roger Donaldson's greatest film. Thirteen Days is set during the two week long Cuban missile crises of October 1962. Thirteen Days is a powerful dramatic thriller about those events, that brought the world near a nuclear war. A very… More
  As far as I'm concerned, this is director Roger Donaldson's greatest film. Thirteen Days is set during the two week long Cuban missile crises of October 1962. Thirteen Days is a powerful dramatic thriller about those events, that brought the world near a nuclear war. A very tense, suspenseful film, Thirteen Days is an impressive film, and we see how the American government try to handle the more than fragile situation. Because after all, this was at the high of the cold war. Director Roger Donaldson does a phenomenal job at building up the tension throughout the film. Donaldson is so good at tension building that you cannot look away from the film because you want to know how all this will end. Thirteen Days is one of the few films that I have seen that brilliantly builds up its thrills and suspense to a very good climax. The cast is well chosen and the best performances here are Kevin Costner and Bruce Greenwood.. These are the two who really deliver on screen, but theres not a single bad casting choice. Thirteen Days is one great dramatic Thriller about one of the most tense two weeks of the entire cold war. Roger Donaldson has delivered a great film thats definitely not boring, even though theres a lot of talking involved. The film will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end and is a terrific thriller supported by a great cast of actors. Thirteen Days is an excellent film that sheds light on those drastic, tense two weeks of October 1962. This is a film that very powerful and compelling, a very interesting depiction of a dark time in history.

• familiar s

  
  Would've liked it better if it was simply a dramatized version of the actual events & not over-dramatized.

• Leigh R

  
  This movie surprised me. I wasn't interested in watching but somehow got wrapped into it. Not so bad.

• Red L

  
  I was amazed that I had not seen this before now (2008). This falls into my realm of great movies - a thrilling, non-stop action, intelligent account of the Cuban missile crisis. I was a kid when it happened, and I had not heard many of the details, but if what the Kennedy… More
  I was amazed that I had not seen this before now (2008). This falls into my realm of great movies - a thrilling, non-stop action, intelligent account of the Cuban missile crisis. I was a kid when it happened, and I had not heard many of the details, but if what the Kennedy administration had to go through was even half of what they showed in this movie, man are we all lucky they were there.

• Lenny M

  
  Costner trying to put on a New England accent.

• Gordon A

  
  Gripping political thriller which manages to hold you transfixed at each turn despite knowing the eventual outcome. You can't get more dramatic than the intense stress these men were under to make crucial decisions for the future of mankind on earth. Beyond scary.

• Jennifer X

  
  most boring movie ever.

• Nate Z

  
  [font=Arial][color=darkred]"Another Kevin Costner film?! I'd rather suffer uncontrolable urination problems!," you could be saying to yourself. After Costner's recent track record of movie train wrecks, hearing that he'll have full Bostonian accent in hand… More
  [font=Arial][color=darkred]"Another Kevin Costner film?! I'd rather suffer uncontrolable urination problems!," you could be saying to yourself. After Costner's recent track record of movie train wrecks, hearing that he'll have full Bostonian accent in hand seems a little nerve-racking. But despite Costner's beantown speech '13 Days' is a real surprise in just how much tension it actually wrings from the true story of the Cuban Missile Crisis.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Though '13 Days' will suffer from the same problem 'Titanic' did, people know their history and know how it ends. Though we all know we weren't obliterated in nuclear war (At least I hope the majority of us know) '13 Days' shows us the suspense through back-door politics as a fly on the wall in the White House. The audience sees all the political wrangling and power struggles in this cat-and-mouse game that made two nations hold their breathes in a high stakes staredown. Bruce Greenwood, mainly known for beguiling Tommy Lee Jones in an assortment of flicks, plays our Commander in Cheif John F. Kennedy. Costner seems to be a presidential advisor that could easily be mistaken for JFK's imaginary friend the amount of time they spend together alone. Steven Culp plays Bobby Kennedy, and the fab threesome make up the core team that handeled this bombastic situation. Of course there are dozens of other individuals involved within varying degrees, with the military leaders wanting procedures to lead them to inevitable war with Communist Soviets.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]The warhawks reccommend a Cuban invasion whereas the option of a quarantine hangs in sight as well. Through the next trying thirteen days stress will accumulate as options become more clear as deadlines become clearer. The politcal manuevering makes for a gripping story, though a tad punched up at certain areas. It proves time and again that history makes the best stories.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Let's get down to what's on everyone's mind: how much is the suck-ratio zooming on Kevin Costner in this picture? Well, his accent is very very jarring to begin with but you kind of get used to it after ten minutes of wear and tear. Costner does an alright acting job but the real spotlight is on the Kennedy brothers. Greenwood and Culp turn in star-making performances that gives human glimpses to the already prolific Kennedys. Culp is outstanding as Bobby, showing that the superiors discount him because of his young age but that he's a shrewd and thoughtful politician. Greenwood doesn't exactly sound like JFK but he adds particular dimension to the man behind the center of the crisis.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]'13 Days' is a prime example of showing how intense and frightening fiction can be. Director Roger Donaldson uses black and white interludes for no real reason, but his final product is one of nail-bitting suspense.[/color][/font] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Nate's Grade: B+ [/color][/font]

• John B

  
  A good if not great film about the Cuban crisis. Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp are excelllent Kennedy brothers..and Costner? Well, he might as well have stayed off screen. His Ken O'Donnell is annoying at best and adds nothing to the plot.

• Cameron J

  
  Government issues pertaining to John F. Kennedy and bad epics about a post-apocalyptic civilization; these are the things that attract Kevin Costner. Shoot, if they make an epic about the government covering up a zombie JFK from the public, post-apocalypse, which sound like a film… More
  Government issues pertaining to John F. Kennedy and bad epics about a post-apocalyptic civilization; these are the things that attract Kevin Costner. Shoot, if they make an epic about the government covering up a zombie JFK from the public, post-apocalypse, which sound like a film that would no doubt be terrible, then forget about it, Costner's on board. Recently, he'd probably hop on just for the cash, because we haven't been seeing much of him lately, and I can't tell if it's because people are just now starting to realize that he's probably not the greatest actor or role-picker in the movie business, or because he decided to have a private marathon of some of his longest films. "JFK" alone actually runs thirteen days, and don't even get me started on "Dances With Wolves". Sounds like he's gonna give the late Howard Hughes a run for his billions upon billions of dollars worth of money when it comes to being locked in a screening room. Hey, I guess I can't blame him too much, because a good couple of his long films were pretty awesome (I said a good couple, most certainly not all, I said having not yet seen "The Postman" and having deemed "Wyatt Earp" underrated), and this film, while certainly not among the highlights, is still pretty decent. Still, if you thought "JFK" lost steam after a while, then just wait until you see this film, which may be considerably shorter than "JFK", but definately shows that Roger Donaldson is no Oliver Stone, no matter how much he very obviously wants to the point of also taking historical liberties by having Kenneth O'Donnell play a much bigger role in the CMC in this film than he actually did in real life (Sorry, Robert McNamara). The film dulls down on the rarest of occasions with its slower spots, yet what is much more prominent and decidedly more problematic than the slow spots are the more intense points, which aren't quite as tense as they want to be. Earlier, I glossed over the idea that this film is ripping clean from Oliver Stone's own style of storytelling from "JFK", almost as if I was joking, but really, I couldn't be more serious. This film aims to hit as hard as Oliver Stone is well known to have done with "JFK", in terms of marrying dramatic tension with political intrigue, but what director Roger Donaldson fails to realize and definately shows is that intrigue on a "JFK" level is no easy feat, and even that film lost steam after a while, so of course this film didn't stand a chance of falling flat after such long periods of total repetitious tension that may affect here and there, yet is, on the whole, more ineffective than it should be. This of course brings such flaws as a considerable lack of development and countless collapses into conventionalism to crystal clear attention, while giving the film some aura of pretension that makes the occasional odd stylistic choice (Why is it in black-and-white all of a sudden, outside of the fact that this wouldn't be a proper "JFK" rip-off without that gratuitous piece of random style?) and overdramatic emphasis on insignificant happenings sting all the worse. With its intelligence hurt and constant intrigue with it, the final product comes out as an unrelenting and occasionally spotty wannabe of a political thriller, and yet, at the end of the day, it remains a rather rewarding one. Perhaps the film could have used someone more like an Oliver Stone to do a study on the Cuban Missile Crisis total justice, but the fact of the matter is that the story is just too rewarding to turn away from. The execution of such a story is improvable, almost to the point of dragging this film down to the level of being simply just fine, yet Roger Donaldson delivers just enough to leave you walking away more satisfied with this study than not. Roger Donaldson's direction is quite flawed and his efforts could have very easily come out as too workmanlike to be upstanding. As things stand, however, while Donaldson finds himself off to a bumpy start, as the compelling plot thickens, his inspiration intensifies, rarely to the point of evoking, well, Oliver Stone, like he wishes we would, yet just thoroughly enough for the film to keep you going. This film follows a recognizable story, and one dramatized with so much unrelenting intrigue to the point of only losing steam here and there, yet when effective intrigue does finally bleed through, an event fairly frequent, it's rather hard to turn away and not find yourself wondering just what is to happen next, even though history has made things quite clear, as far as telling us where this story goes, and for that generally effective and ultimately triumphant compellingness, credit not only goes out to Donaldson for his periodically inspired moments, but his performers for their consistently inspired moments, even if the miscasting it pretty embarassing. Speaking of an I-can't-believe-they-didn't-bring-that-up level of mistake, on top of not really looking the Kenneth O'Donnell character, Kevin Costner's Massachusetts accent is glaringly bad (Speaking of "JFK", maybe he should just stick with doing Southern accents, because if it's an accent from anywhere else in the world, he's gonna butcher it), yet he shockingly manages to almost drown that out with charisma alone, giving us a very stern and authoritative, yet humanly vulnerable presence that may not be much more than a retread of the... Jim Garrison role (And yet more "JFK"), only with a much worse accent, but still has enough unique juice to it to win you over. Still, a particular standout in the film, to me, has to be Bruce Greenwood, who is sadly too terribly miscast as Jack Kennedy for you to be all that convinced, yet that's not enough to stop a powerhouse like Greenwood, who embodies JFK's strong leading authority and cleverness to the point of being bought as a such a powerful force, while drenching him in subtle humanity. However, as the situation unravels and calls for approaches to lead less to the rational and more to the take-action, that humanity in both the JFK character and Greenwood's performance begins to surface, giving Greenwood the opportunity to emphasize Kennedy's slow but sure rise in emotional compromise through emotion and raw grit in his atmosphere. Greenwood's graceful performance and Costner's charisma are among the more compelling aspects in this film, helping in giving the film enough juice to not only sustain general engagement value, but to ultimately transcend its many missteps and satisfy a rather rewarding political thriller, overambitious though, it may be. At the end of the thirteen days, the film's palpable ambition taints its tone with some level of pretention that's simply not all that justified, as the film's unrelenting and usually underwhelming attemps at tension leave it to lose steam, with limited exposition, many conventions and quite a bit of repetition making that steam-loss all the more extreme, yet the film shockingly transcends its many missteps by delivering on a generally and ever-ameliorating compelling tone of intrigue in executing the compelling storyline, thanks to Roger Donaldson's often inspired direction and the performers' - particularly Kevin Costener's and Bruce Greenwood's - consistently inspired perfomrances that ultimately leave "Thirteen Days" to stand as a generally genuninely intriguing and compellingly fascinating study on the Cuban Missile Crisis. 3/5 - Good

• Willis T

  
  Pacing problems, but this is pretty well made, Kevin Costner kicks a lot of ass in this one.

• Alec B

  
  The film almost certainly overplays the significance of Kenneth O'Donnell (Played by Kevin Costner who produces the worst New England accent ever put on screen) who probably had little to do with the whole crisis and I've always felt that making the Russians and Cubans… More
  The film almost certainly overplays the significance of Kenneth O'Donnell (Played by Kevin Costner who produces the worst New England accent ever put on screen) who probably had little to do with the whole crisis and I've always felt that making the Russians and Cubans almost non-existent characters in the whole affair downplays what the lessons of those days really were. However, the film is well made and The performances of Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, and Dylan Baker and John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Robert McNamara respectively are all right on the money.

• Deb S

  
  Thirteen Days is an interesting and thought provoking film that gives some insight into the communication processes of political leaders. It is the story of how the Kennedy brothers avoided war while the entire U.S. military -- and most of President Kennedy's staff -- wanted the… More
  Thirteen Days is an interesting and thought provoking film that gives some insight into the communication processes of political leaders. It is the story of how the Kennedy brothers avoided war while the entire U.S. military -- and most of President Kennedy's staff -- wanted the United States to strike Cuba and enter into war with Russia. President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Kenny O'Donnell, their political advisor, decided to wait and it was a chilling two and a half hours of drama, showing tense dialogue because Kennedy's refusal to take immediate action leads the Joint Chiefs to suspect weakness. The Cuba crisis remains a great example of how potentially lethal and global conflicts can be resolved with the pen rather than the sword. The only thing that holds this movie from being a masterpiece is the slightly disappointing ending, since the audience never feels the relief people in 1962 must have felt where just the tiniest misstep could have sparked a general nuclear war. If you like historic dramas, this is one not to miss.

• Brian R

  
  Not as fascinating or engaging as Oliver Stone's "JFK" but "Thirteen Days" is still a good effort nonetheless, and well casted.

• Sarah P

  
  An important historical movie.

• Jessica v

  
  Fantastic film, positively engrossing. Being Canadian, it was very interesting to really get inside the minds of the leaders that helped steer the world from nuclear war. Greenwood gives a strong, dignified performance worth noting. Definitely recommended, just make sure… More
  Fantastic film, positively engrossing. Being Canadian, it was very interesting to really get inside the minds of the leaders that helped steer the world from nuclear war. Greenwood gives a strong, dignified performance worth noting. Definitely recommended, just make sure you're prepared to think.

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