Roger Donaldson's Thirteen Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis

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Recommended: The importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis for relationships between the USA and USSR

Director Roger Donaldson and the producers of Thirteen Days accurately incorporate the main events of the Cuban Missile Crisis into the plot of the film. The identification of the missiles by an American U-2 plane, subsequent presidential advisor meetings and efforts to keep the discovery from the press are all true to the 1962 crisis. Even the images shown to President Kennedy at the time of identifying the missiles are identical to the ones given to the president in real life. The producers, for the most part, accurately represent the ExComm conferences in the film. While the aggression of the military advisors is enhanced, the meetings capture the severe stress under the leaders of the country when debating the course of action to …show more content…

President Kennedy exacerbated tensions prior to the Cold War by threatening Castro’s rule in the Bay of Pigs invasion and Soviet Union security by placing missiles in Turkey. While the Bay of Pigs is briefly mentioned in the film, the filmmakers do not make clear connections from conflicts prior to the war leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The film is portrayed entirely through the perspective of the Americans, which facilitates the audience in misinterpreting the causes of the conflict. By refraining from incorporating the Soviet perspective, the Americans are seemingly innocent in the conflict. In his 1962 speech which is highlighted in the film, President Kennedy calls the placing of missiles a threat of peace and offensive action taken by the Soviet Union. The filmmakers do not incorporate Khrushchev’s response, which blatantly states that the missiles are of a defensive nature and the Soviet Union wants a “peaceful coexistence” between the nations. It makes sense that the filmmakers would refrain from showing faults of President Kennedy and maintain the American perspective throughout the film to appeal to the American audience and refrain from detracting from the main plotline of the debates between advisors in the decision-making

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