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Thirteen Days (Widescreen) | 
| Director: Roger Donaldson
Actors: Dylan Baker, Elya Baskin, Len Cariou, Kevin Costner, Steven Culp
Studio: New Line Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 8.99
Buy New: CDN$ 8.09
You Save: CDN$ 0.90 (10%)
New (12) Used (8) from CDN$ 4.99
Rating:  172 reviews
Sales Rank: 3596
Format: Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: DN5202D
ISBN: 078063411X
UPC: 794043520228
EAN: 9780780634114
ASIN: B00005J760
Theatrical Release Date: January 12, 2001
Release Date: September 2, 2003
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item, factory Sealed. Buy direct from the U.S. and save! We only ship airmail to Canada (7-15 days).Caiman, les prix qu'on aime! Tous nos produits sont neufs. Envoi par avion des Etats-Unis
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Additional Features
The first DVD released with the "Infinifilm" label, Thirteen Days is the perfect vehicle for the extensive extras loaded on this single disc. If you enable the Infinifilm feature, a pop-up window will appear every few minutes during the film. Select one of the options and you're whisked away for a 30-second to three-minute feature on numerous topics relating to the onscreen action, including documentary footage of the actual events described in the film, cast and crew interviews, a making-of feature on the film, filmographies, deleted scenes, and historical biographies. (All the special features are also available in their entirety in the Special Features area of the disc.) Each segment is labeled with its length, and when the feature is done, you are automatically returned to the same point in the film. It's a nice way to take a second, more in-depth look at the movie. Historians, news broadcasters, and even Khrushchev's son lend their voices to one commentary track, which also includes historic speeches. The other commentary track includes key filmmakers and insights from producer-actor Kevin Costner. The short deconstruction of the jet-flyover special effects is superb, as is the subtitle option that offers historical text about the onscreen action that can be engaged with or without the Infinifilm mode. --Doug Thomas
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| Customer Reviews: Read 167 more reviews...
 "There is something immoral about abandoning your own judgement" January 10, 2007
Belén (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Thirteen Days" is an absolutely wonderful movie that somehow allows the spectator to be a witness of some of the meetings behind closed doors that took place in the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962.
Among the people that participated in those meetings, the most important ones were probably the president John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp), Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker), presidential aide Kenneth O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), Adlai Stevenson (the US Ambassador to the UN, played by Michael Fairman), Secretary of State Dean Rusk (Henry Strozier), National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy (Frank Wood) and Ted Sorensen as Special Counsel to the President (Tim Kelleher).
That was a moment in time when nuclear war was a very real possibility, and J.F. Kennedy did all in his power to avoid such an event. The actor that plays him said something that I consider noteworthy: "There is something immoral about abandoning your own judgement". I think that the director (Roger Donaldson) tried to highlight with that phrase the ultimate responsibility of the president regarding the course of action that his administration was going to take. All his advisors could give their opinion, but in the end it was J.F. Kennedy's decision that mattered.
What triggered that dreadful situation, that lasted 13 days?. The URSS secretly sent ballistic missiles to Cuba, missiles capable of destroying many United States' cities, thus threatening national security. The Americans discovered that, and had to reach a decision regarding what to do. The responsibility was immense, because a simple mistake could mean the beginning of a nuclear war.
All throughout the movie we can see that the president of the United States knew that the consequences if the matter got out of hand were going to be catastrophic. But what to do?. Many of his advisors had vastly different opinions, ranging from invading Cuba immediately to waiting a little for a political solution to the problem. It is really interesting to realize how difficult it was for them (and specially the president) to reach a decision, when so much was at stake, and they had incomplete information about URSS' intentions.
Of course, "Thirteen Days" isn't entirely historically accurate, overemphasizing the role of some of the characters, and maybe not paying enough importance to others. All the same, that often happens in movies, and that doesn't mean that they aren't good. If you want a completely accurate recount of the Cuban Missile Crisis, read a history book like "The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis". If you just want to watch a good film that will give you a fairly accurate idea of what happened then, watch this film. My recommendation?: do both things.
On the whole, I think that you are highly likely to enjoy "Thirteen Days". You will be entertained, but at the same time you will have a glimpse of how the process of decision during crisis really works in real life, and how difficult it is to conciliate the views of different agencies. What is more, and if you don't know much about the Cuban Missile Crisis, this film might be perfect as an small introduction to the matter. Truth to be told, I had already studied this crisis at university, but I enjoyed watching Roger Donaldson's take on it :)
Belen Alcat
 Boring July 11, 2004
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
I saw this film in a history class I was taking and it definitely was not viewed for the sake of accuracy, more as a comparative piece to an actual historical documentary and I must say I found the documentary of still pictures & voice overs more entertaining. I struggled to stay awake during this drag of a movie.
Spell binding from beginning to end July 9, 2004
Toni Shutt (Sioux Falls, SD United States)
I had seen this movie only in bits before on TV but had never seen the whole thing. I recently purchased it and within the last week have literally watched it again and again. I can only vaguely remember hearing the words "Cuban Missile Crisis" when I was 8 years old and had no idea just how close we came to WWIII. This is an excellent, attention holding film. I loved Kevin Costner in this and also "JFK - a must see also". Both Greenwood and Culp did a wonderful job of portraying the Kennedy brothers. I would highly recommend this movie. Use both this and JFK to educate your children, if you can get past the foul language somehow.
COMPARE THE CUBAN CRISIS WITH IRAN-CONTRA June 8, 2004
Steven R. Travers (CALIFORNIA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Thirteen Days" re-created the Cuban Missile Crisis, elevating the Kennedys to virtual sainthood while painting Curt LeMay as an advocate for nuclear holocaust. It was a fantastic picture, like many of them, but in it is an interesting scene in which Kenny O'Donnell, played by Kevin Costner, tells a Navy plot to lie to LeMay about being shot at, because LeMay would supposedly have ordered a strike if he had been. The film paints this lie as the right thing to do because it advocates the Kennedy's position, which was to maintain level heads and a calm demeanor. However, in 1987 Ollie North was excoriated by the Left for lying about the funding of anti-Communist guerrillas, which was Reagan's position. Funny about that.STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
"Let's hope cooler heads will prevail" May 24, 2004
Scamp Lumm (Perseus-Pisces cluster, ~100Mpc)
Ken O'Donnell (Kevin Costner) reassures his wife over the phone in the midst of the crisis, "Jack and Bobby, they're smart guys". Kevin Costner's accent was unintelligible to me at first, couldn't place it, and I assumed he would be playing Bobby. Once I figured out who was who in the cast, (I thought so many of the cast looked very much like the people they played), I began to remember the story as it unfolded told by RFK in the book of the same name.I've watched this movie three times now; as I've said before, I'm no movie critic, just love a good story. This one of course, is true. My mother remembers seeing the trains, filled with our soldiers, on the track leading to Florida from her window in downtown Memphis, TN; I wasn't born yet, don't have a story to tell, yet many Americans remember those days. The clip of air raid drills showing people outside crouching on the ground, looked so much like people praying to Allah, it was eery to me. I felt the movie was well done all around; it has so much to offer besides the acting. I loved the footage of rockets being launched etc. before the story really began. The book is as good as the movie, in my opinion; I thought Bobby's version in writing conveyed better somehow the tension and stress they were truly under. As to Costner's bad Boston accent, I've lived in the Boston area for 12 years plus now, and I still can't understand these people sometimes!!! Boston accents are supposed to be bad!
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