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.

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

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