MovieChat Forums > Thirteen Days (2001) Discussion > Great Film

Great Film

posted 8 years ago by Eric266
3 replies | jump to latest

I own this movie on DVD, yet I still will sit and watch it in its entirety when its on TV. Great story, fantastic acting (Bruce Greenwood SHOULD be president), and stellar direction make this a must see for both movie fans and history fans.

As many on this board have pointed out, it takes some creative licenses with history. I was born after the crisis, but it was still fresh in the minds of people when I was growing up that you still heard talk about it. Its hard for us to envision how close to nuclear war we really were back then, but the movie does a fantastic job of showing the tension as the buildup to the possible invasion of Cuba arrives. The Kennedy's know they have to appear strong (most of the intelligence and military community thought they were cowards and turncoats after the Bay of Pigs fiasco), but they also don't want to incite World War III.

The movie does a remarkable job of taking larger than life people and making them seem human. The film Gettysburg does the same thing with famous people who we all know from history books, but seldom have any real grasp of their humanity. In this film, the Kennedy's are shown a heroic, but also as men who are stressed about the decisions they have to make as well as fighting the fear they all must have been feeling. The scene near the end where RFK goes to the Soviet Embassy is telling. He is terrified, but he knows it must be done.

I highly recommend doing some research on this incident before watching the movie. Its easier to follow some of the characters and their motivations if you know more about them.

My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.

[–] UberZoldat 8 years ago

Some creative licenses? The film either greatly exaggerated or just plainly portrayed things inaccurately.

1) There was no confrontation between the Grozny and the USS Pierce.
2) The Pierce never engaged the Grozny to begin with. The confrontation with McNamara and Admiral Anderson did take place, but long before any ship approached the quarantine line.
3) Major Anderson's U-2 was hit by either one or two AA missiles, not four as seen in the film
4) There was no mention of Khrushchev's public announcement over Moscow Radio on Saturday the 27th of a mutual withdrawal (Jupiters out of Turkey, Soviet missiles out of Cuba). The fact that they wholly omitted any mention this announcement is stretching the meaning of creative license.
5) The conversation between Scali and Feklisov also fails to take the above into account.
6) RFK was far more belligerent than portrayed. Early on, he advocated staging terrorist attacks in the U.S. or a "USS Maine"-like incident to give the U.S. a reason to attack Cuba.
7) Furthermore, RFK was far more shrill and desperate in his negotiating with Ambassador Dobrynin, practically begging him to accept the U.S. position lest the generals get their way, thereby creating the impression among the Soviet government that they were almost calling the shots at the White House.

I enjoyed this film when I first saw it, but the more I've read about the crisis, the more I realize it fits within the early mythology created by Schlesinger et al. We're not even going to mention to O'Donnell's exaggerated role...

I pretend to work because the Soviet government pretends to pay me.

[–] slimone (7996) 5 years ago

I loved this film!

[–] GenoWashingline (875) a year ago

I understand that it uses creative license (honestly that is a Very interesting post above about some if the issues)... But is is a Great Movie that brings the whole incident alive.

So underated, I hope people start to watch this as a kind of "Sequel" to Oppenheimer.