Underplayed Gems

Thirteen Days (2000)

Thirteen Days poster
Directed by
Roger Donaldson
Genre
drama film, war film, historical film, political thriller film
Country
United States
Runtime
2h 25m
Rated
PG-13
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 842 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

The film follows President John F. Kennedy and his advisors during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. They work through back-channel negotiations and military threats to prevent a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The story focuses on their pressured decision-making over thirteen days.

tenseurgenthistoricalintensepoliticalrealisticsuspensefulserious

What happens

Thirteen Days is a 2000 American historical political thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson. It dramatizes the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, seen from the perspective of the American political leadership. Kevin Costner stars as top White House assistant Kenneth P. O'Donnell, with Bruce Greenwood featured as President John F. Kennedy, Steven Culp as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Dylan Baker as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. While the film carries the same title as the 1969 book Thirteen Days by former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, it is in fact based on the 1997 book The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow. It is the second docudrama made about the crisis, the first being 1974's The Missiles of October, which was based on Kennedy's book. The 2000 film contains some newly declassified information not available to the earlier production, but takes greater dramatic license, particularly in its choice of O'Donnell as protagonist. Thirteen Days premiered on December 19, 2000, before being released by New Line Cinema in the United States on January 12, 2001, with Buena Vista Film Sales releasing in other territories. The film received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the screenplay and performances of the cast but was a box-office bomb, grossing $66.6 million against its $80 million budget. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.