Thirteen Days (PG-13)

An outstanding movie for families with older kids.

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Movie details

Studio: New Line Cinema
Directed By: Roger Donaldson
Release Date: 12/20/2000
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA Explanation: brief language, tense situations, peril

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this movie features brief strong language. Most of the movie is very tense, and a character is killed.

Families can talk about the Cuban missile crisis. They can also talk about what we do when we have hard choices to make -- President Kennedy and his brother, his closest advisor, listen to advice from experts, but, as the President says, "There is something immoral about abandoning your own judgment." At the end of the day, he realizes that "there's no wise old men; there's just us." Why does Kenny O'Donnell say that the only word in politics is "loyalty?" Why did the Soviets send a message through a reporter instead of using diplomatic channels? Why was it important for Adlai Stevenson to make a strong statement at the UN? Why did they ignore the second letter from Kruschev? How did that change things? What must someone do in order to direct soldiers to take actions that may get them killed? Who told the truth and who lied? Why?

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Accurately depicts all-white and male historical characters

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

None

Violence

Very tense situations, character killed in combat

Sex

None

Language

Brief strong language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Nell Minow

THIRTEEN DAYS chronicles the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when American planes took photos of Soviet missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) had endured the botched attempt at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow Castro the previous year. This drama doesn't waste time on introductions or exposition, giving the story a sense of immediacy and urgency. Advisors like Dean Acheson and the military urge JFK to bomb the sites. But Adlai Stevenson says, "One of us in the room should be a coward," and he asks the President to come up with a diplomatic solution. Kennedy knows better than to fight the last war, but he is not sure how to fight the next one. The President and his advisors argue about what to do ("Bombing them sure would feel good!"), interrupted by "just as usual" events to avoid letting the press or the Soviets suspect that anything was going on. When President Kennedy tells Chicago Mayor Daley that he "wouldn't miss this event for the world," we appreciate the literal meaning of his words.

Is it any good?

Thirteen Days may seem like a movie script, but it really happened. This gripping film will leave audiences reminding themselves that we are still here, and for once, the tag line has it just right: "You'll never know how close we came."

Producer Kevin Costner plays a real person, Kennedy staffer Kenny O'Donnell, but the character combines the roles and actions of several people and essentially exists to help tell the story as efficiently as possible. Most of the time, he blends in with a large, capable cast of character actors (though he seems to make himself too important in a pep talk scene and at the end there is a sort of "Three Musketeers" shot that seems inappropriate).