The Most Compelling Real Life Stories Brought To Film

Thirteen Days

Director: Roger Donaldson

In October 1962 (what is it with October?), the United States and the Soviet Union came within minutes of nuclear war.

We’re all aware of the Cuban Missile Crisis and are inclined to offer a raised-eyebrowed, “Wow, glad that didn’t happen,” but it remains a rather cerebral notion in these days so far removed from its specter.

Until Roger Donaldson gets hold of it.

Donaldson is the master of examining the alarming through the eyes of the Everyman. Oftentimes an exceptionally skilled Everyman, to be sure, but it’s never the skill that filters the tale, it’s the man. And here it’s Kenny O’Donnell, special assistant to John F. Kennedy and close adviser as Kennedy held our world in his instincts.

With a slow burn reaching an invisible flame, Donaldson marches us through the events, using such a low-key touch that it actually cracks the self-protective minimizing denial with which the subject so often seems handled, and leaves us rattled.

This isn’t the story of an executive formulating political and military strategy, it’s the story of a couple of men trying to prevent our literal collective death, and how very nearly they failed. So close it was that one almost can’t embrace the success, and Donaldson makes us feel it.

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