From October 14, 1962 to October 28, 1962, America experienced one of the most dangerous times in its history. Soviet Russia was stationing medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, our neighbors to the south. Due to the proximity of Cuba, the missiles could reach everywhere but Seattle. Americans feared that a catastrophic nuclear war would break out between Russia and the United States, possibly killing up to eighty million people. Luckily, a diplomatic solution was stumbled upon and the crisis was resolved. Thirty-eight years later, in 2000, a movie called Thirteen Days was released starring Kevin Costner. The movie covers the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. While the movie is undeniably a suspenseful thriller, there are questions
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The first thing it does very well is portray how serious of a situation the Cuban Missile Crisis was. Ernest May thinks, “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” (5). The film makes it very clear how close America came to World War III. The United States armed forces was raised to DEFCON 2, just like it was in the film, which is one step away from a global war (Zelikow 2). The movie represented the fear and tension of American’s, as well. The scene in which O’Donnell comes to his son’s football game represents the fear of Americans. His son left the football game in the middle of a play to make sure that everything was going to be okay. This can be seen as a metaphor for how the American people stopped everything they were doing at the time and focused all their attention into attempting to secure their safety. It also accurately represents how the United States stood up to Khrushchev and was able to cut a deal with the Soviets. The President did, in fact, receive two letters and he did ignore the second one that called for the removal of Jupiter missiles in Turkey (White 1). Robert Kennedy met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and did pledge to remove the aging Jupiter missiles from Turkey and not to invade Cuba in exchange for removing the missiles in Cuba, however, the terms regarding the Jupiter missiles would have to remain a secret (2). This was represented nicely in the movie with Robert Kennedy’s meeting at the Justice Department. Overall, the film did a good job showing how the United States forced the Soviets to back down. Whenever a long period of time is condensed into one hundred forty-five minutes, there will be factual inaccuracies. Some things had to be played up and other things minimized because Hollywood is a business, and they need to make money. However, the factual inaccuracies in
The first thing it does very well is portray how serious of a situation the Cuban Missile Crisis was. Ernest May thinks, “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” (5). The film makes it very clear how close America came to World War III. The United States armed forces was raised to DEFCON 2, just like it was in the film, which is one step away from a global war (Zelikow 2). The movie represented the fear and tension of American’s, as well. The scene in which O’Donnell comes to his son’s football game represents the fear of Americans. His son left the football game in the middle of a play to make sure that everything was going to be okay. This can be seen as a metaphor for how the American people stopped everything they were doing at the time and focused all their attention into attempting to secure their safety. It also accurately represents how the United States stood up to Khrushchev and was able to cut a deal with the Soviets. The President did, in fact, receive two letters and he did ignore the second one that called for the removal of Jupiter missiles in Turkey (White 1). Robert Kennedy met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and did pledge to remove the aging Jupiter missiles from Turkey and not to invade Cuba in exchange for removing the missiles in Cuba, however, the terms regarding the Jupiter missiles would have to remain a secret (2). This was represented nicely in the movie with Robert Kennedy’s meeting at the Justice Department. Overall, the film did a good job showing how the United States forced the Soviets to back down. Whenever a long period of time is condensed into one hundred forty-five minutes, there will be factual inaccuracies. Some things had to be played up and other things minimized because Hollywood is a business, and they need to make money. However, the factual inaccuracies in