Post by erik on Mar 1, 2012 13:57:11 GMT -5
Dialogue between JFK (Bruce Greenwood) and Curtis LeMay (Kevin Conway) in THIRTEEN DAYS:
LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President.
JFK: What did you say?
LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix.
JFK: Well maybe you haven't noticed, you're in it with me.
The period between October 16th and October 28th, 1962 was a period when the world came closer to The End than it had ever come before, and would ever come again. When a U-2 flight over Cuba uncovered evidence that the Soviets were putting ballistic missiles within 90 miles of the U.S. mainland, the United States and its idealistic president John F. Kennedy found itself confronting the threat of World War III. There was pressure from the military bigwigs to invade and strike Cuba and destroy the missiles before they became operational; but Kennedy and his national security team, aware of what would happen if they did this, took the initiative and quarantined Cuba to force the Soviets to capitulate. That terrifying two-week period in world history, known forever as the Cuban Missile Crisis, is what was depicted in the 2000 docudrama THIRTEEN DAYS.
Seen through the eyes of JFK's special adviser Ken O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), the film accurately shows how JFK (convincingly portrayed by Greenwood) showed considerable acumen in making the decision to have the military stand ready (at Def-Con 3), but at the same time willing to stand up to the ambitions of the military to get into a shooting war, which would have resulted in Armageddon. To this end, he relies on everyone on his team, including his brother Bobby (Steven Culp), Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker) and UN ambassador Adlai Stevenson (Michael Fairman), to do whatever they can to make the Soviets understand that having those missiles in Cuba is neither in America's best interest, nor in the Soviet Union's. The crisis is resolved, but not without some very hairy incidents that almost trigger the worst.
Even though we know how the Cuban Missile Crisis ended (with the world still intact, somehow), THIRTEEN DAYS showed us how it progressed and escalated until it was finally resolved. This puts the film right up there with ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, in that what makes such films worth watching is not merely the end result but the "how". Everyone gives their best in this film, directed by Roger Donaldson, and scripted by David Self, from the book The Kennedy Tapes: Inside The White House During The Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest D. May and Philip D. Zelikow.
One can only shudder at what it would have been had someone like a Nixon or a Bush The Younger been in charge back then. Thankfully it was a president, JFK, who understood that the best way to resolve the crisis was to put himself in the shoes of the Soviets, and make them understand why this had to be resolved. THIRTEEN DAYS shows us again how much the world owes to this president, who was so unfortunately and all too soon cut down.
LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix, Mr. President.
JFK: What did you say?
LeMay: You're in a pretty bad fix.
JFK: Well maybe you haven't noticed, you're in it with me.
The period between October 16th and October 28th, 1962 was a period when the world came closer to The End than it had ever come before, and would ever come again. When a U-2 flight over Cuba uncovered evidence that the Soviets were putting ballistic missiles within 90 miles of the U.S. mainland, the United States and its idealistic president John F. Kennedy found itself confronting the threat of World War III. There was pressure from the military bigwigs to invade and strike Cuba and destroy the missiles before they became operational; but Kennedy and his national security team, aware of what would happen if they did this, took the initiative and quarantined Cuba to force the Soviets to capitulate. That terrifying two-week period in world history, known forever as the Cuban Missile Crisis, is what was depicted in the 2000 docudrama THIRTEEN DAYS.
Seen through the eyes of JFK's special adviser Ken O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), the film accurately shows how JFK (convincingly portrayed by Greenwood) showed considerable acumen in making the decision to have the military stand ready (at Def-Con 3), but at the same time willing to stand up to the ambitions of the military to get into a shooting war, which would have resulted in Armageddon. To this end, he relies on everyone on his team, including his brother Bobby (Steven Culp), Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker) and UN ambassador Adlai Stevenson (Michael Fairman), to do whatever they can to make the Soviets understand that having those missiles in Cuba is neither in America's best interest, nor in the Soviet Union's. The crisis is resolved, but not without some very hairy incidents that almost trigger the worst.
Even though we know how the Cuban Missile Crisis ended (with the world still intact, somehow), THIRTEEN DAYS showed us how it progressed and escalated until it was finally resolved. This puts the film right up there with ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, in that what makes such films worth watching is not merely the end result but the "how". Everyone gives their best in this film, directed by Roger Donaldson, and scripted by David Self, from the book The Kennedy Tapes: Inside The White House During The Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest D. May and Philip D. Zelikow.
One can only shudder at what it would have been had someone like a Nixon or a Bush The Younger been in charge back then. Thankfully it was a president, JFK, who understood that the best way to resolve the crisis was to put himself in the shoes of the Soviets, and make them understand why this had to be resolved. THIRTEEN DAYS shows us again how much the world owes to this president, who was so unfortunately and all too soon cut down.
