It's October, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis. Photos from the U-2 spy plane show possible nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. This sets off high level panic that almost ends with WWIII. The movie centers on the Special Assistant to the President, Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner). The push from the military is for a full invasion of Cuba. However, the Kennedy brothers and Kenny push back.

This is more like a brilliant stage play done with so much intensity that the audience is right there in the room. There are flashes of newsreels, CGI, and other footage to fill out the movie with the outside world. It is very much a political thriller inside the President's inner circle. It is tense despite the well known ending and event highlights. The use of Costner as a side character pushed out to be the lead is brilliant. It allows the best (but lesser known) actors in some of the most iconic roles around. Surprisingly, there are also flashes of humor. The acting is amazing. This is one of the best movies about those thirteen days.

I was in ninth grade when upon arriving home from school, my mother told me we may in the middle of a nuclear war. The Cold War had reach its climax and a rash act by the Russian hierarchy shoved the gravest danger in the face of John F. Kennedy, still wet behind the ears. This film really captures some of the intricacies of that historical moment. While Kevin Costner's character is a bit much, we get to see the tension that existed in the global community and behind the closed doors of the White House. As the two powers parry and thrust, we realize the consequences. There is so much posturing in politics, but when the price is destruction, or at best, invasion, the stress meter goes all the way to the right. I have to say that the portrayals of the politicians of the time was nicely done (as was the military). We tend to oversimplify things in our smugness as Americans, but imagine having to make the decisions these men made. It is an ultimate chess match which has the face- saving piece hanging over it. This is all pulled off nicely. Also, I never knew what Adlai Stevenson's role was in all this. He just seemed like the intellectual presidential candidate that lost twice to Eisenhower. See this.

If you lived through the era, you knew things were tense. Average people were getting ready, preparing to meet their Maker. If anything, the film paints an even grimmer picture than anyone outside of the Kennedy Administration inner circle could have contemplated, with the entire world a stone's throw away from the brink of nuclear war.

It seemed to me that the events as depicted in the story were fairly accurate historically. What particularly impressed me the first time I saw this movie, which was reinforced again when I watched it the other night, was how forceful John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) was in facing down his generals to avoid a military confrontation right from the outset. The same with Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker) as Secretary of Defense in his row with the Admiral who ordered the 'star missiles' to be fired as a warning.

However of all the names mentioned in the story who were part of Kennedy's cabinet, along with the principal military leaders of the time, the one name that didn't offer a hint of recognition was that of Ken O'Donnell (Kevin Costner),who in this picture was accorded as much significance as that of JFK and brother Bobby (Steven Culp). I chalk that up to Costner being one of the movie's producers, and if I'm all wrong about that, so be it. I thought the character had an important presence in the story, but have to wonder if the real Ken O'Donnell would have had as much influence with the brothers Kennedy.

Considering the real world paranoia that gripped the world during this thirteen day span of time during October, 1962, an interesting contrast can be made against the fictional story presented in 1964's "Fail-Safe", about an accidental launching of an American nuclear missile strike against Russia with no hope of retrieval. Filmed just a couple short years following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the story is a real nail biter with an unbelievable resolution intended to 'even out the destruction' between military super powers. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

One note of irony in this film's casting, that of Stephanie Romanov as Jackie Kennedy. Although her mother was American born, her father was of Slovakian descent, with a last name that most anyone would mistake for Russian. I wonder if anyone connected with casting on the picture thought about that.