Review of Thirteen Days

Thirteen Days (2000)
Yet another Kennedy hagiography
25 February 2001
I predict that eventually JFK and RFK will be portrayed in Hollywood productions with medieval-style nimbuses around their heads. Both characters are brought pretty close to sainthood in this picture, the characterizations of which have all the depth of a 1940s-era comic book. The Kennedys and their "best and brightest" are smart, subtle, and preternaturally adept at perceiving internal machinations in the Kremlin. The bad guys, namely the Pentagon brass, do everything short of gnashing their teeth and twirling their moustaches to come across as cigar-chomping, one-dimensional villains.

On the plus side, the acting is reasonably good, and the military hardware is well portrayed. Period aircraft like the Vought RF-8A supersonic reconnaissance plane and the venerable U2 are resurrected with proper respect and startling verisimilitude. I think I even caught a glimpse of a Rockwell RA-5C Vigilante--very cool! The only technical error I caught was when a missile liftoff portrayed as an "Atlas test" was actually a Titan II.
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