what is the theme of the movie thirteen days

When I tried to think how else the producers might have pulled in a mass audience–as opposed to a PBS-documentary-sized audience–Henry James’s principle of having a single perspective on events made sense. Americans tend to write history solipsistically, as if all things good and evil are made in the U.S.A. Here, I believe, the producers deserve high marks. They did facials and I did their make up then did a heap of slumber party photo shoots. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Thirteen Days is a 2000 American historical political thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson. In 1997 I had transcribed and edited (with Philip Zelikow of the University of Virginia) some of the tape recordings made secretly by JFK–and nothing in these tapes, in other documents, or in the recollections of Kennedy’s key advisers gives O’Donnell an important or even conspicuous role in the crisis. Instead, it is a kind of evocation of the great moments of this two-week period as we best understand them from today’s vantage point. So a carnival theme with a slumber party with a few close friends after, maybe. Second, Thirteen Days makes comprehensible – better than most written histories of the crisis, despite all the additional documentation and detail they’ve provided – the awful predicament that President Kennedy faced. Great day/night. The problem was more one of effective story telling in dramatic film narrative-distilling the powerful events and issues of the Cuban Missile Crisis in an accessible format-than it was one of manufacturing a dramatic story. The film Thirteen Days, a Hollywood account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, purports to take audiences “behind the scenes” at the White House during the tense and critical period when nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union seemed not only possible but likely. Graham Allison (political scientist/historian; director of the Belfer Center). Ernest May (historian; 1928-2009) Thirteen Days Themes The Threat of Nuclear War Robert Kennedy describes the missile crisis as “a confrontation between the two giant atomic nations, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., which brought the world to the abyss of nuclear destruction and the end of mankind” (20). He was a long-term close associate of John and Robert Kennedy and an important figure in the White House, and the tapes do show that he attended some of the meetings concerned with the crisis. In actuality a man of glittering intelligence – his ironic wit the equal of JFK’s – he appears in the film a nervous wimp. Thirteen Days has no scenes in Havana or Moscow. Click here for Peter Almond’s analysis For thirteen extraordinary days in October of 1962, the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe. At one, he raised an important question that was then pressed insistently by JFK: Just what were U.S. naval vessels to do if they encountered a Soviet submarine? Synopsis. In my opinion, Thirteen Days succeeds as a thriller. There are two ways to look at this movie: as a thriller and as a history. Buy, Rent or Watch Thirteen Days and other Movies + TV Shows online. “Kenny O’Donnell saves the world” was what I feared I would find. 'Thirteen' by Hoyle was probably the best book I have read. Thirteen Days recreates for this generation of Americans much of the reality of the most dangerous moment in human history. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987) - Burt Kennedy, Peter Werner on AllMovie - The … 5 years ago. In October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis. Aside from a young woman with frightened eyes whom O’Donnell sees at the Soviet embassy when he’s acting as Robert Kennedy’s driver, the only Russians who make appearances are diplomats or KGB officers who interact with Americans. Get your answers by asking now. In most instances, these discrepancies are simply the result of squeezing into a two-hour film a 13-day crisis that had major turns more than once every half-hour. Parents need to know that Thirteen Days, a docudrama about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, is exciting and suspenseful, even though the actual outcome is well known. In the case of Thirteen Days, the writer and producers and director were so struck by the nature of the historical record itself that they felt it was unwise to range widely from it. Thirteen Days is Robert Kennedy’s personal account of the Cuban missile crisis. He was a long-term close associate of John and Robert Kennedy and an important figure in the White House, and the tapes do show that he attended some of the meetings concerned with the crisis. Answer Save. Thirteen Days To Midnight explores this question, as he and his friends survive daring feats without a scratch. inflating O’Donnell’s role to that of elder brother of President Kennedy – stiffening the president’s spine, on the one hand, while corralling military leaders bent on war, on the other; caricaturing the military leadership as a war-mongering monolith; miniaturizing most of the other advisors, particularly Bundy, Sorenson, and Dillon. This is not only unfair to the generals and admirals who served him, but it misconceives entirely the sense of duty that almost invariably motivates Americans who wear uniforms. That was why Kennedy felt he could not let Khrushchev get away with what he had done in Cuba. Thirteen Days’ dramatization gets a number of specific historical facts wrong: In what Charles Krauthammer has called an “ideological lie,” the movie portrays military leaders seeking to maneuver the president into war. The central theme of Thirteen Days, then, is how the administration walks a very fine line between war and peace in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. The film rights were an outright sale, so the movie’s success or failure has no effect on my bank account –unless it produces a spike in sales of the book, which is clearly what my publisher is aiming for in changing the cover. Viewers who know this movie is about a real event will leave the theater shivering with the understanding of what the Cold War could have brought. what were the themes in the movie thirteen days, For my sisters 13th birthday we did a kids theme. — Kenneth Chisholm and assmn316. The most controversial assertion of Roger Donaldson's "Thirteen Days," an intelligent new political thriller, is that the guys who blinked were not only the Soviets, but also America's own military commanders--who backed down not from Soviet ships but from the White House. Click here for Ernest May’s analysis. The film airs Friday, December 18 at 10:30 p.m. on THIRTEEN. The film focuses on Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and White House aide Kenneth O’Donnell. Anything that weakened the credibility of this threat could have forced the U.S. president to surrender West Berlin or else initiate what could have turned into global nuclear war. We have struggled to be faithful to the historical record, if inspired by it to dramatize the story, but dramatized in such a way that central themes of the crisis, the nature of leadership and its importance, the nature of the nuclear threat, the importance of judgment in the office and person of the President the United States accurately reflect the events of October of 1962. ’Thirteen Days’ Doesn’t Add Up by Michael Nelson, Political Science Professor, Rhodes College. We tried to suggest the Russian side of the events in the appearance of Gromyko and Dobrynin, but our main focus was on the United States’ side of the calculation. The story of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962—the nuclear standoff with the USSR sparked by the discovery by the Americans of missile bases established on the Soviet-allied island of Cuba. The first such truth is that it was a real crisis in the medical sense of involving life or death. After Harvard University Press published our transcripts as The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Beacon Communications bought the movie rights, and the film’s director, Roger Donaldson, came to see me in Cambridge. At another meeting, in a tart exchange with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, O’Donnell expressed rude contempt for General Lyman Lemnitzer, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What did the sensai do to Rizo by pushing in his organs with his fingers in the movie ninja assassin that was the “that is true pain” scene. It dramatizes the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, seen from the perspective of the US political leadership. Designed to help policymakers, students, and interested citizens draw lessons from these critical events half a century ago, this site not only provides background on the crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in October 1962 but also offers tools to understand how it can inform contemporary policy. Rather, it is a dramatization. In October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thirteen Days describes the meetings held by the Executive Committee (ExComm), the team assembled by US President John F. Kennedy to handle the tense situation that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union following the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in … Favorite Answer. There are other legitimate questions about some of the filmmaking choices. But the central themes of the movie and the principal “takeaways” are essentially faithful to what happened when JFK and Khrushchev stood “eyeball to eyeball” in 1962. Second, the movie misrepresents the military. All of this makes for some very compelling drama that truly brings history to life. Which films depict people who have shrunk down to a tiny size? It accurately reproduces some of the restrained but anguished debate from the secret tapes, and it intersperses extraordinarily realistic footage of Soviet missile sites being hurriedly readied in jungle clearings, of American U-2s swooping over them, and of bombers, carrier aircraft, and U.S. missiles preparing for action. My verdict on its accuracy is mixed. The film is not a documentary. Thirteen Days is participant Robert F. Kennedy's memoir of the Cuban missile crisis that occurs from October 16 to October 28,1962. For me, the movie’s less-than-perfect historical faithfulness is more than offset by its presentation of three essential truths about the Missile Crisis. Soviets offer to remove the missiles in exchange for the U.S. that it will never invade Cuba and involving removal of its Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Their anxiety has to stand for the population’s as a whole. As a result, we studied the personalities, behavior, and positions of the President, the Attorney General, and their advisors. Across the globe, people anxiously awa… Finally, the film succeeds in representing the presidency as demanding very high intelligence and cool judgment. View Notes - Thirteen Days from CHEM chm234 at International Academy of Design & Technology. Why tf do I need to pay to rent films on Amazon prime WHEN IM ALREADY PAYING FOR THE SERVICE ON TOP OF THAT UGH!!!? I should also add that after I read the script, I sent the director some suggestions, and in October 1999 Zelikow and I and a number of others were invited to a prescreening in Washington, D.C. Director Roger Donaldson teams up with star Kevin Costner for another political thriller (after their 1987 pairing, No Way Out), only this time with a film based on the actual events surrounding the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, taking place during the titular thirteen days wherein the U.S. and the Soviet Union nearly engaged in full-scale nuclear war. Inevitably, we have been forced to compress events and, at times, even conflate the comments and functions of participants of the crisis to meet the demands of a dramatic narrative. 1, January 1, 2001 – January 15, 2001. First and foremost, I would like to say that the film is not meant to be the last word, or the first word, on the Cuban Missile Crisis. She had all sorts of kids games that none of her friends had played in forever, it was great. What movies are about an obese person (or several obese people) being bullied? We had a long talk, and afterward someone else at Beacon sent me a copy of the script, written by David Self. Thirteen is a British drama miniseries created and written by Marnie Dickens. But does the movie succeed as a history? Loyalty. Still have questions? The movie skews many small points and a few large ones. We wanted the audience to watch the debate go back and forth among the civilian and military advisors and to track the decision-making process. At its best the film should prick the curiosity of viewers about the actual history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and lead them to reflect on its lessons and implications. For thirteen extraordinary days in October of 1962, the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe. Donaldson also directed Costner in No Way Out, which was a hard movie to walk out on. Click here for Graham Allison’s analysis And they tried to argue Kennedy out of his decision to postpone direct military action and announce a blockade so that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev could have time to consider peacefully withdrawing the nuclear missiles he had secretly and deceptively introduced into Cuba. The image of Kevin Costner, as Kenny O’Donnell, calling pilots flying over Cuba to persuade them to lie to the chain of command for the larger good of the country is unreal. Join Yahoo Answers and get 100 points today. How faithful is the movie to the central truths about this historical event? It makes no attempt to suggest why Khrushchev decided to sneak the missiles into Cuba or, in the end, to pull them out. Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center has created this site as a resource for the Cuban Missile Crisis. They have not only attempted, but succeeded in entertaining in ways that convey messages that resonate with the central truths of the crisis. Download or stream from your Apple TV, Roku, Smart TV, computer or portable device. 2 Answers. I like how it has so much suspense near the end of the chapters and throughout the book and the suspension makes me want to read the next p The reason of which I decided to read this book was because the appearance of the book hooked me into learning more about it. In terms of portraying historical personages and analyzing how the crisis was resolved, we needed to isolate the character traits that got people into this situation and ultimately helped them get out of it. Kennedy had no reason to suppose that the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 had diminished the desperate eagerness of the East German Communist regime to add these West Berliners to its imprisoned population. What the filmmakers have done in their deployment of O’Donnell/Costner comes much closer to speculative historical fiction of the sort practiced by Simon Schama in Dead Certainties (a fictionalized reconstruction of an eighteenth-century murder based closely on historical fact) than to whole-cloth fantasy such as Edmund Morris’s Dutch (Morris inserted himself as an invented character in this biography of Ronald Reagan). But as they cheat Death time and again, they notice Ophelia, Jacob's crush, is fading into a dark shell of herself and is becoming more and more possessive of the gift. CLIMAX Thirteen Days at Rotten Tomatoes They settle on a step less than a blockade, which is formally regarded as an act of war. Bundy is the worst example. It invites viewers “into the room” as a president and his advisors struggle with a seemingly intractable problem that offers no good options. But the film comes close enough to truth that I will not be unhappy if it is both a big success now and a video store staple for years to come, with youths in America and around the world getting from it their first impressions of what was probably the greatest international crisis in all of human experience. McNamara and Kennedy adviser Dean Acheson are cartoons, recognizable only in the one case by steel-rimmed glasses and a pompadour and in the other by a guardsman’s mustache. But as it turns out, that is not the movie's theme: Only once or twice in Thirteen Days does O'Donnell do or say anything that he might not actually have done or said. I enjoyed the film somewhat, but I was pretty disturbed too. Then a slumber party with her closest friends afterwards. The more important question, however, concerns the film’s central messages. View 13 days report.docx from AMERICAN H 31282 at Moorpark College. Lv 4. ;). Thirteen Reasons Why follows the story of Clay Jensen, as he returns home from school to find a mysterious package on his bed.When he opens it, he finds seven cassette tapes. No one should see the movie expecting to learn exactly what happened. Compressing Thirteen Days into 145 minutes necessitates distortion of many specific historical facts. Thirteen Days is many times more gripping. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. She had all sorts of kids games that none of her friends had played in forever, it was great. History. Graham Allison (political scientist/historian; director of the Belfer Center) For thirteen extraordinary days in October of 1962, the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe. Still, why make O’Donnell our window on events? More than anything, the book is terrifying: at almost any moment during the crisis, millions of human beings around the world could have been vaporized without notice. As President John F. Kennedy observed with specific reference to the Missile Crisis: “The essence of ultimate decision remains impenetrable to the observer – often, indeed, to the decider himself… there will always be the dark and tangled stretches in the decision-making process – mysterious even to those who may be most intimately involved.”. Quite the contrary: The Wall was one piece of evidence among many that the East Germans and their Soviet patrons were running out of patience. Can loving a trans woman ever be as beautiful in person as it is in the movies? If nothing else, Thirteen Days demonstrates that it can matter a lot who gets elected to occupy the White House. When I learned that Thirteen Days, the new movie dramatizing the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, would follow events through the eyes of Kenneth O’Donnell, John F. Kennedy’s appointments secretary–who would be played by the movie’s headliner, Kevin Costner–I had strong misgivings. Thirteen Days is not a substitute for history. Olympic champ Klete Keller hit with 7-count indictment, 'Bachelor' contestant admits party photo was a mistake, Brady to have 'minor' surgery after Super Bowl victory, Charges: Man shot staff one by one in attack, N.C. man charged with threatening to kill Biden, Biden: U.S. securing 600 million vaccine doses by July, CNN host rips Cruz for breast milk tweet during trial, AG Barr quashed plea deal in George Floyd killing, Valparaiso is ditching its Crusaders nickname, Why shoppers are raving about this viral toothbrush, Tokyo Olympics president resigns after sexist remarks. The chiefs of staff unanimously recommended bombing Cuba and then following up with an invasion. The film focuses on Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and White House aide Kenneth O’Donnell. Anonymous. Which movie did you find more disturbing I Spit On Your Grave 2 or Audition 1999? Thirteen Days In the movie the Thirteen days its show historical event when the Cubin missile crises Thirteen Days captures the reality that is so clear in the tape transcripts: The crisis for Kennedy had very little to do with Cuba and much to do with the commitment he had inherited to protect two-and-a-half million West Berliners. 12 no. The one and only safeguard for West Berliners was the U.S. threat to use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union. First, with the exception of Robert Kennedy, the advisers assembled around the president neither develop as characters in their own right nor even resemble the real-life men. Thus, a lot of academic histories and even memoir reconstructions of the crisis have supposed that it arose out of U.S. relations with Cuba–that it came about because of our animus toward Fidel Castro or because of the Kennedy brothers’ machismo, and that it could have been willed away by a gentler attitude toward Cuba or softer language by JFK or more willingness in 1962 to accept Soviet missiles in Cuba as counterbalancing NATO missiles in Turkey and Italy. But that perspective couldn’t easily have been JFK’s; and had it been that of a major adviser, the movie would have almost inevitably depicted him- McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy, White House Counsel Ted Sorensen, UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, or whomever- as the person who “saved the world.” O’Donnell was a reasonable choice, for he was in a position to see much or all of what went on, but was not a policy contestant or even a person particularly sophisticated on the issues; he was an inside Everyman, evaluating the crisis almost as an ordinary citizen would. 1 decade ago. Co-producer Peter Almond raises the tough question about standards in cinematic dramatization. 0 0. But others may well say such omissions make the movie less true. In 2000-1, the Belfer Center partnered with the makers of Thirteen Days to analyze the film’s historical accuracy and efficacy at presenting the White House deliberations of how to respond to the Soviet Union. Home Page // For Educators // Media Depictions of Nuclear Crises // Thirteen Days Analyses. Khrushchev had warned Kennedy that he intended definitively to solve the Berlin problem later in 1962. But there was never any fee paid for my consultation or even any travel- expense reimbursement.). Thirteen Days (2000), starring Kevin Costner and directed by Roger Donaldson, is a film that chronicles the decision-making of President Kennedy and his EXCOMM during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But two aspects of the movie grossly distort reality. We believe, however, that this kind of dramatic narrative imposes a responsibility upon us as filmmakers to remain faithful to the most important themes and issues which a consensus of historians and policy experts have identified as constituting the historical record. (This means that when I say I like the movie, the reader is entitled to wonder if my subconscious mind is counting royalties. Summaries. Reading Thirteen Days, one asks oneself repeatedly how the current Preside The memoir/history is well-written, though I wouldn't call it a comprehensive document of the entire episode. Patriotism. Thirteen Days (2000), starring Kevin Costner and directed by Roger Donaldson, is a film that chronicles the decision-making of President Kennedy and his EXCOMM during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thirteen days is a movie which follows the entire events of the cuban missile crisis and how they were handled by JFK and his David D. Williams' "Thirteen" (1997) tells the story of a 13-year-old African-American girl named Nina, who runs away from home and causes much concern for her … But Thirteen Days portrays the military as trying to corner Kennedy so he’d have no choice but to do what they had recommended. The film is a recreation of a crucial incident in American history that's suitable for teens and mature tweens, as well as adults. My own conclusion is that these were not necessarily bad choices: Scenes in the Kremlin would have been distracting and would have raised questions the movie could not answer. By what standards should accuracy and fidelity in Hollywood history be judged? But as it turns out, that is not the movie’s theme: Only once or twice in Thirteen Days does O’Donnell do or say anything that he might not actually have done or said. Thirteen is a decent teen drama concerning two troubled teens that started off well enough, but decided to take the rebellious route. Movies Section: Which one of those are your favorite movies from 1995 and 1996? Bruce Greenwood’s wholly believable performance as John F. Kennedy in Thirteen Days shows a real president – not a Camelot knight but someone who recognizes that he has a very difficult job and that anything he does or says can have huge consequences. Horsemen 4Ever. Really fun. For years now, movies have either trivialized the office (The American President, Dick, and Wag the Dog) or represented it as a weak institution surrounded by sinister centers of secret power (JFK). In terms of our hopes for the film, we want to inspire the audience to learn more about the Cuban Missile Crisis, because it contains some important lessons for today, and because it sets a standard for how we view leadership, public leadership, in the face of tremendous adversity. This even tis precipitated when Soviet offensive weapons are found in Cuba, contrary to public and private promises by Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev. * This article appeared in The American Prospect vol. Overview. what were the themes in the movie thirteen days. It recalls vividly a confrontation in which nuclear war was really possible, reminding us of an enduring truth about the nuclear age. For my sisters 13th birthday we did a kids theme. As the Attorney General of the United States and President’s Kennedy’s brother and most trusted confidant, Robert Kennedy played a significant role in that critical period. We were inclined to stay close to the actual nature and behavior of the key people, to focus in on a small number of them, and to make the movie story as clear and easy to follow while simultaneously remaining consistent with the historical record. In October, 1962, U-2 surveillance photos reveal that the Soviet Union is in the process of placing nuclear weapons in Cuba. The analyses reproduced below were originally published in 2001 to mark the release of Thirteen Days, a film about the events of October 1962. Thirteen Days DRAMA Kevin Costner stars in this inside look at how the Kennedy Administration responded to the discovery of offensive Soviet weapons in Cuba, and the pressurized tug-of-war that ensued between the US and the USSR during the thirteen days of the missile crisis.

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