Thirteen Days

October 1962. Reconnaissance flights photograph Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. In the White House a thirteen-day argument begins: an air strike, an invasion, or something else. Kennedy refuses the strike and a naval blockade, officially a quarantine, is put in place to stop the weapons being armed. The way out comes through a back channel, in Robert Kennedy's direct talks with the Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. Roger Donaldson directed. Kevin Costner plays Kennedy's special assistant Kenneth O'Donnell and Bruce Greenwood plays the President. The source is not Robert F. Kennedy's memoir of the same name but the 1997 book The Kennedy Tapes. Several directors were considered including Spielberg and Coppola before the job went to Donaldson. Real Cold War-era ships and aircraft were used in the filming. The budget was 80 million dollars and it took 66.6 million, a box office disappointment. The reviews were generally positive. The real objection came from historians and from people who were in the room. Robert McNamara and Ted Sorensen said the film greatly exaggerates O'Donnell's actual influence. Who it is for: viewers who like decisions made behind closed doors and tension built out of talk. Who it is not for: anyone after historical accuracy. The weight given to the main character was openly rejected by those who were there.