Thirteen Days

It's probably not a good time of year [fall finals 2001!] to do this, but we need to have a pop quiz:

Who was Nikita Khrushchev?

Who was Dean Acheson?

What was the Bay of Pigs Invasion and who authorized it?

If you don't know the answers to these and similar questions, you probably won't enjoy "Thirteen Days," a worthwhile and occasionally inspired film about backroom strategizing in the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, whose successful conclusion is generally counted among John F. Kennedy's greatest triumphs as Leader of the Free World.

The present film has been made using new info from a fascinating book by Ernest R. May called "The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis." Accordingly, "Thirteen Days" falls way over towards the scholarly end of the historical film continuum, as opposed to the entertainment end which gave us former model Milla Jovovich's Joan of Arc a couple years back. This film is not a good choice for escapist entertainment, but history buffs, politics junkies and people who want to know more about why we all aren't charred, radioactive corpses right now will find much to cheer and enjoy in "Thirteen Days."

Just as a refresher: The crisis happened because the USSR, then still going strong, had put nuclear missiles into Cuba which were capable of reaching and destroying Washington and numerous less important cities. Our military and statesmen had to figure out a way to get the missiles out of Cuba without starting World War III. That they found a way to do it is a miracle, and the way they performed the miracle is the subject of this film.

Screenwriter David Self's Big Idea is to watch the unfolding crisis mostly though the eyes of Special Assistant to the President Kenny O'Donnell, who happens to be played by extremely well-paid actor and producer Kevin Costner. Costner's Big Idea about how to play O'Donnell appears at first to be using a truly grotesquely exaggerated Bahston accent; although he eventually settles down and delivers a good performance, the accent seems to lead him astray at first by its very force.

Costner's troubles mirror the film's. Director Roger Donaldson and Self had an incredible amount of compression to do while getting "Thirteen Days" down to two and a half hours, and most of the compression seems to have been done in the exposition, which is hurried and haphazard. Characters appear and disappear without informative introduction or explanation, neither Bruce Greenwood as JFK or Steven Culp as younger brother Robert are given a chance to establish themselves, and information flies around in little unconnected bits which will bewilder anyone who doesn't already know something about what's going on. The film also shifts from color to black-and-white a lot during this section, unpredictably, inexplicably, and annoyingly. The music seeks to underscore a rhythm that isn't present in the filmmaking, instead sounding weirdly unaware of the film. The first third of this film is a mess.

As the film moves along towards the high-stakes decisions which JFK made so well, however, Donaldson and Self find a groove. The film moves more slowly, allowing time for introspection and deliberation, and the filmmakers are able to control it better. Incident flows from incident logically, with seamless transitions from vituperative backroom confrontations to hair-raising spy plane missions. The portentous series of slo-mo nuclear explosions during the opening credits no longer seems overblown, but quite a real danger. The drama becomes so compelling, you almost forget that you already know how the story turns out.

Of course, much of the film's improvement is due to the efforts of its cast. Greenwood's performance blossoms as more time is given to him; his JFK is a precarious but effective mix of idealism and pragmatism, resolve and indecision, confidence and remorse. He doesn't resemble JFK too much physically, but he captures his bearing and demeanor (at least for this reviewer, who admittedly never saw JFK while he was alive). Culp as RFK also effortlessly conveys complexity and depth; his cockiness is always undercut by his realism, and his devotion to his brother is never pointed at and always palpable. Even Costner gets into the swing of things, conveying a certain prosaic but winning grace, although it must be noted that during the last part of the film he talks much less than he did earlier.

So, much like the events it describes, "Thirteen Days" begins in a mess of unreadiness and disorder, but eventually resolves itself into quite a compelling film. Most of us college students did not live through the drama of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and "Thirteen Days" is a good way for us to get a taste of what it must have been like. You may, however, want to wait until after finals to see it, so you have a chance to review the material of President Kennedy's ultimate test.

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