Product Details

• Actors: Shawn Driscoll, Kevin Costner, Drake Cook, Lucinda Jenney, Caitlin Wachs
• Directors: Roger Donaldson
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Special Edition, NTSC
• Language: English, Russian
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• VHS Release Date: November 13, 2001
• Run Time: 145 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (252 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005NSYB
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,036 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When released in December 2000, Thirteen Days was pummeled for taking liberties with the facts of the Cuban missile crisis and smothering its compelling drama with phony Boston accents by its primary stars. More tolerant critics hailed it as one of the year's best films, and that's the opinion to believe for anyone who enjoys taut, intelligent political thrillers. For those too young to relate directly to the timeless urgency of the crisis that played out over 13 days in October 1962, Thirteen Days joins the classic TV treatment The Missiles of October (1973) as an intense and thought-provoking study of leadership under pressure.

The film (and costar-coproducer Kevin Costner) drew criticism for fictionally enhancing the White House role of presidential aide Kenneth O'Donnell, but while Costner's Boston accent may be grating, his fine performance as O'Donnell offers expert witness to the crisis, its nerve-wracking escalation, and the efforts of John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp) to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Russia. While Soviet missiles approach operational status in Cuba, director Roger Donaldson (who directed Costner in No Way Out) cuts to exciting U.S. Navy flights over the missile site, ramping up the tension that history itself provided. Donaldson's occasional use of black and white is self-consciously distracting, and he's further guilty of allowing a shrillness (along with repetitive, ominous shots of nuclear explosions) to invade the urgency of David Self's screenplay. Still, as Hollywood history lessons go, Thirteen Days is riveting stuff. You may find yourself wondering what might happen if reality presented a repeat scenario under less intelligent leadership. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine political thriller, June 7, 2001

By	Christine MacDonald (Mt. Airy, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirteen Days (Infinifilm Edition) (DVD)

I saw this film in the theaters and was very disappointed that it was not a major hit; although I think I know why. This is definitely a character and dialogue-driven historical drama. Not your run-of-the-mill mind-blowing blockbuster type of film! I believe this film will play very nicely in DVD or video form where it's quiet drama will play itself better.

I was VERY disappointed that Bruce Greenwood was not nominated for an academy award (there were rumors this may happen) because I believe his performance was as good if not better than the men that were nominated. His JFK was, in my humble opinion, perfect. I found this film compelling, well written, and dramatic. I especially enjoyed the scenes where Kenny O'Donnell (K. Costner) went to church and went to see his son play ball. Can you just imagine what you would feel if you thought the end of the world may happen?

As I watched this movie, I thought it was a shame that the movie-going generation of today did not take the time to watch it. To them, this is history of long ago; to many others, it is a lesson worth watching and remembering.

This is also, quite frankly, a wonderful and entertaining piece of cinema. Give it the chance it deserves.

47 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping drama, even if not entirely accurate, January 17, 2001

By	Eugene Wei "eugene" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I remember studying the Cuban Missile Crisis in college, in a class on group dynamics and groupthink. It is such a remarkably involving event, I was a bit apprehensive going into the film, as Hollywood often manages to suck the life out of inherently thrilling stories. Luckily, they get this one right. While it is not historically accurate, I didn't care, because the story this film tells preserves the essence of the event, the tension in the White House as two superpowers danced at the edge of World War III, and the type of individual heroism and leadership it probably took to save us from ourselves.

The story is told from the perspective of Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), given an inflated role as the advisor to President Kennedy and confidant of both John and Bobby. Telling the story from his perspective is a good one, as it allows us to view John and Bobby as the larger than life heroes they were. Costner's faux Bostonian accent is so lousy as to cause hysterical laughter from my friends and I as the film started, but thankfully Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp outshine him with remarkably charismatic portrayals of John and Bobby. I wasn't alive when Kennedy was president, but after watching Greenwood's performance I can understand why so many look to Kennedy as our last great president. Surrounded by military chiefs of staff rabid to go to war with the Russians, the Kennedy's and O'Donnell find the courage to follow their better judgment and inspire enough decent men around them to steer both sides to a peaceful resolution. This is filmmaking about the clash of strong personalities in a group setting, like Twelve Angry Men, or Glengarry Glen Ross, or Fail Safe. I find the subject fascinating.

A few other minor quibbles: occasionally the film switches to black and white, ostensibly to heighten the sense of historical accuracy, but it just looked like we were watching a studio screener copy of the film to me. That could have been left out. Also, occasionally the director Roger Donaldson inserts scenes with O'Donnell hanging out with his family, brooding over their well-being, with head in hand and furrowed brow. They feel like attempts to conjure up some of the tension that common American families felt during the event, but Costner no longer has the dramatic presence to pull them off, and I would have preferred Donaldson narrow his focus to stay within the confines of the White House.

But those are minor quibbles. Dylan Baker plays Defense Secretary Robert McNamara wonderfully, and it's amazing how much Culp and Baker resemble Bobby Kennedy and McNamara. I left the film wishing that presidential candidates like George Bush or Al Gore had half the charisma of Greenwood's JFK. Ah, but isn't that always the case with presidents in the movies? If you find yourself fascinated by the Cuban Missile Crisis after watching the film, pick up the book from which some of the film's events were pulled, "The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis." It provides a more historically accurate and just as compelling examination of the event.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Redeemed by video/Faith In The Movie Going Public, May 23, 2001

By	kirk colton (Ogden, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirteen Days (Infinifilm Edition) (DVD)

Hopefully, this movie will recieve more exposure on home video than it did theatrically. The manner in which the public ignored this movie has given me serious doubts about films of the future. I mean. Pearl Harbor will probably be insultingly inaccurate about history and prove to be one of the biggest films of all time. Thirteen Days on the other hand played it as straight as a hollywood movie could and just tanked. Thirteen Days has flaws. The history favors the Kennedys a bit much. The movie uses some bizarre stylistic choices. But one thing the film does that most political thrillers fail at is to show how complicated, intense and most of all important the art of negotiation is. Sure the film portrays the military brass as being war mongers. But damn by the end of the film if I didn't feel like my life could be drastically different now(I was born in 69) if the war mongers had won in the cabinet meetings. Very powerful stuff. Dr Strangelove with it's dark edged satire might have been more effective in scaring me about the horrors of nuclear war. Fail Safe might have done a better job of showing how close we came to oblivion. But Thirteen Days gave me the optimism in knowing that from now on when war is always an option, the art of negotiation is ultimately a more powerful tool.

One more thing. Michael Delucca was an executive producer of this movie. Delucca always takes chances. Maybe that is why some of my favorite contemporary films(Seven, Magnolia, Dark City) have been produced by him. He was let go from New Line. Whoever hires this guy will end up releasing great films.

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