Look Again: Re-Review of 13 Days

13 Days (USA, 2000)
Historical Drama
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Starring Kevin Costner and Bruce Greenwood

Headline: HIT OR MISS-ILE

Rating: Three Specs (out of 5)

13 DAYS is close, but no Cuban cigar. As directed by Roger Donaldson - who also gave us Kevin Costner’s breakout Pentagon thriller No Way Out - it’s a talky essay on cold war diplomacy. It marks a return to form - and content - for Costner, who co-produced the film, and here gets to further praise the glory that was Camelot, in a role (Kenny O’Donnel, Special Assistant to the President) that could be described as Jim Garrison Jr., side-kick to JFK.
The film’s 1962-based story is familiar from history books, thus facing the Titanic dilemma: we know the ship sinks. In this case, we know that the world - on the brink of Atomic War during the 13 days of the stand-off between the green President and red Nikita over the building of missile bases in Cuba - does not end with a big bang.
Oddly, Donaldson, usually good at constructing solid thrillers, can’t seem to keep up the suspense. This is frustrating, given the dramatic material he has to work with: doomsday deadlines, global intrigue, spies, secret Soviet telexes and fanatical American generals. Instead of pacing 13 DAYS like the countdown to the biggest explosion ever, Donaldson flattens everything to TV movie sameness. 13 DAYS feels two weeks too long.
Perhaps sensing the film isn’t quite as gripping as other Nuclear Era product, like Fail Safe, or Oliver Stone’s JFK/Nixon doubleheader, Donaldson tries his hand at some cinematic gimmickry. There’s the recurring mushroom cloud motif. And, every so often, the film stock bleeds from black and white into colour, then back again, screaming: this was history - this really happened! But even this gesture gets abandoned as the war of words - and rockets - heats up. What’s missing is the smack-rush editing Stone knows the MTV generation craves as the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.
As war room re-enactment, 13 DAYS is on surer footing. The acting is strong. Fans of the All-American Costner will rejoice: he’s as handsome and decent as ever, with his usual wife-at-home and gaggle of kids to reassure us that, unlike Jack, he’s no philanderer. Costner’s Boston-Irish accent takes time to sink in, though.
More difficult to accept is Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood’s atypical portrait of Kennedy. Greenwood barely looks or sounds like the man, but eventually his stalwart charisma alerts us to the deeper authenticity of the portrayal. Stephen Culp as Bobby Kennedy, meanwhile, is an uncanny double, down to his trademark arms-crossed, head-bent-in-deep-thought pose.
The ultimate star of 13 DAYS may be its picture perfect fetishization of 60s fashion, automobiles and interior design. It’s almost as if Hugh Hefner was Art Director. White House as Playboy Mansion? Not in this ascetic world of white men in white shirts. The only sex in this version is the constant narcissistic gaze of mutual adoration between the two brothers who saved the Free World, then got shot for it.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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