Review of Thirteen Days

Introduction

Thirteen Days is a gripping and powerful thriller documenting the true events of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 60s. It is told mainly from the viewpoint of Kenny O`Donnell (Kevin Costner), the Political Adviser to President John F. Kennedy. It depicts the thirteen days between the USA discovering nuclear missiles in Cuba, the escalation of the crisis (which is the closest the world has ever come, bar recent events, to WWIII) to its final conclusion - with a win for "both sides" if you will.

Obviously World War III didn`t break out so you can guess the ending, but like Apollo 13, this is as tense and as gripping as it gets and made all the more terrifying because it is true.

Director Roger Donaldson introduces the actors, and rather than trying to impersonate the characters directly, he gives you the flavour of these people. Also the film necessitates that you have a basic understanding of the people and (more importantly) the events beforehand. Unlike Apollo 13, the script doesn`t spend time explaining to the audience the nuances of the crisis, you need to know the political events beforehand, and this lets the actors` room to breathe and live more fully in their characters than other true-life films like this. The more you know, the better your enjoyment of this film will be.

Regarding the DVD itself you have a complete encyclopaedia on the actual crisis, so if you aren`t fully aware of the events that took place you will be very knowledgeable by the end of it. For example, did you know that the Cuban Missile Crisis wasn`t about wanting to blow the US away? Rather Khrushchev was wanting to use it as a bargaining tool to get the Allieds out of West Berlin… this and more will be uncovered within the extraordinary realms of the DVD, more of which later.

Pressure comes to JFK, Bobby and Kenny from all sides. Not only do they have to deal with the Russians and the nuclear missiles currently being fuelled 90 miles off the American coast. They have to deal with the military advisors within the White House who are itching to start an invasion of Cuba to make up for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. They try to set him up with the rules of engagement on the enemy, but JFK knows where this will lead - nuclear war. He has to skirt deftly between being trapped in by the Generals but not coming off as an appeaser - something his father was accused of (and never lived down) regarding the treatment of Hitler in 1938. This is a very tricky thing to pull off, but the nuances of these performances showing the characters motivations are exemplary - really placing you in the time of these events.

Wonderful performances combined with a gripping story and tension positively bristling off the screen, this is probably the best DVD you will purchase this year. The best I hear you ask? Read on to find out what else this DVD has to offer.

Video

The picture is an anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, and as you would expect from a new film, it is excellent. Normally there isn`t too much to tax a DVDs video processor here - mainly shots of the White House and a handful of men with differing opinions, however the print is as sharp as those 60s suits.

Donaldson also intermixes colour with black and white film to give you a flavour of the time you are in, showing wonderful black levels and a myriad number of grey shades.

Audio

From the opening menu you know you are in for a special treat. The brand new New Line (Inifinifilm) Logo appears with the basic New Line tune, but with rear split surround and sub-woofer enhancement. You`ll probably press the Skip-Back button a couple of times before actually getting into the feature itself listening to this.

As far as the film is concerned, care and thought has gone into the sound department also. For the majority of the time you are listening to points of view and arguments. The speech is well handled and always comes across clearly - vital for this type of film. Trevor Jones` orchestral score helps ramp up the tension when needed and this helps the film tremendously. The score feels broad and encompassing with a lean towards the treble to give that "on-the-edge" feeling.

Your sub will aim punches at the floor on a few occasions giving you the feeling of dread necessary when watching nuclear explosions and is also used to enhance the pressure of events on screen. Subtly used but very effective.

Finally there are a few occasions when the full 5.1 mix comes into life. The split surrounds giving excellent directional cues as to where the jets are coming from, and these jets have a wonderful feeling of presence and power when the sub and all five speakers are firing, and the sense of tension when the U2 is dodging SAMs (Surface-to-Air Missiles) pulls you towards the edge of your seat.

Features

And this is where my typing fingers are going to get really sore! There is so much here lesser companies would have split this over two disks, and it still wouldn`t have been as detailed, well thought out or as entertaining as New Line have managed to do with this DVD.

Firstly, this DVD is from New Line`s new range of films under the Infinifilm label, and this takes Edutainment to a different level!

At its heart Infinifilm is similar to the "Follow the White Rabbit" feature in The Matrix, but takes it far beyond that. With Infinifilm switched off, you get the film with no interruptions. With it turned on, you get intermittent menu options shown at the bottom of the screen, each of these being specific to the action happening on screen. Example options include showing behind the scenes, how the sets were constructed, watching a deleted scene, or watching an extended version of the scene being played on screen. It shows actual footage of some of JFK`s speeches and deeper analysis into the political events that took place. This helps tremendously with your understanding of the people and events and really does further enhance your enjoyment of the film. It takes a while to watch it with Infinifilm turned on - as a straight watch, the two hour film will be extended by a further one and a half to two hours.

Now when you normally activate these sort of special features on DVDs you make a compromise by having a non-anamorphic or worse, a 4:3 picture - not with Infinifilm! Firstly you still watch the film with its anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio complete with 5.1 sound. All documentary features are shot in anamorphic 1.85:1 also and the sound is stereo, but for the features shown it really doesn`t need to be any more than that. 5.1 in this section would have been unnecessary and overkill.

If you wanted to strip Inifinifilm down to its bare bones, it is simply an elaborate range of hyperlinks to different sections of the DVD. The DVD includes an excellent 48 minute documentary entitled Roots of the Cuban Missile Crisis explaining in comprehensive detail the actual events; another called Bringing History to the Silver Screen showing us a "behind the scenes" view into making the film; a Visual Effects Scene Deconstruction showing (via the angle option) the build up of special effects that were employed during the film; and finally Cast and Crew Filmographies. These features are available to watch on their own, or through the film via the Infinifilm option (hence the long running time of Infinifilm).

Had enough yet? Well, there`s still more. There are two commentaries here, the first is a filmmaker commentary featuring Director Roger Donaldson, Kevin Costner and others. This is very well put together and offers wonderful titbits of information about recreating these characters - Costner needing to adopt a Bostonian accent to step into his character, and the need for the director to create the correct `flavour` of the events rather than trying to mimic them exactly.

Then we move onto the Historical Figures Commentary - more interesting than the first and featuring an all star cast… you will hear John F. Kennedy, Robert MCNamara, Kenny O`Donnell and newly created interviews with Pierre Salinger (the White House Press Secretary during the crisis) and Sergei Khrushchev (son of Nikita Khrushchev). This really grounds the film in the truth it is so obviously steeped in. People who were present and active participants in the crisis confirming everything you are watching on screen - there are no "Events have been buggered around with so we can portray the way we feel history should have been written" messages at the start of the film here. This is all actual stuff backed up by the people speaking here. And if you think you knew everything about the crisis by now, yet more information is squeezed out about it here.

Are we there yet? No. You also get a Historical Information Track. This is a subtitle track featuring information on the crisis. This gives more information like the name of the flyer of the U2 bomber at the start, the year Jackie Kennedy met John, and even the fact that up until 1992, there was still a manual telephone exchange (shown in the film) used in the White House.

There are deleted scenes which you can either watch via the Infinifilm option, or on their own. You can also watch these with an optional commentary from Donaldson, all of which are anamorphic 1.85:1 and presented in stereo.

The trailer is anamorphic 1.85:1 and in glorious 5.1. It takes its musical cues from the music written for A Few Good Men, but this is as good a piece of music you can attach to a film like this, and succeeds in making you want to watch the film.

Finally (my last word on the Extra Features), you have Script-to-Screen Access to the film where you view the film on the left with the script shown on the right. You can print off the script for this chapter, or the entire script should you so wish. There is also a link to the original website (which wouldn`t work on my computer for some reason), and access to on-line Infinifilm features.

Conclusion

When I first got this film, I knew it would be a while before I was going to be able to write a review. There is so much material to get through! No other DVD has been so comprehensive in its coverage of the actual events that took place since the World at War Boxset. However it is presented here in a very innovative and entertaining way that WAW just can`t match.

So what do we have here? A true-life tense and gripping drama played out before us with a wonderfully sharp picture, excellent and clear speech combined with some wonderful split surround, sub-woofer and 5.1 moments. Overly generous extras, so much so that this DVD now stands as THE definitive document to the Cuban Missile Crisis with the wealth of information on offer… not only that, you get anamorphic widescreen extras, and the film can also be heard in 5.1 whilst Infinifilm is turned on.

It`s my first and (I think) my only DVD with a score of a perfect 10. You have no excuses, buy the film and see what your DVD player is capable of.