Analysis Of Thirteen Days

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The film which I was assigned for the History and Film Project was titled Thirteen Days. The following film focuses on the time period during the early 1960’s, 1962 to be specific. This time in history was known as the Cuban Nuclear Missile Crisis. The movie gets its title from the amount of days which the United States and the Soviet Union were at conflict and almost went to full out war. This war would have been different than the wars in the past due to the fact that this was a conflict over nuclear weapons, and they would be used in attack from both sides. The president at the time of the affair was John F. Kennedy and the movie portrays how he stood his ground and was able, with the help of top advisors withstand the games that the Soviet Union was playing to scare the United States. The Soviets tried to trigger the nerves of the U.S but to no avail. The Soviets placed missiles on Cuban land and aimed them towards the direction of the Florida coast which would allow for the destruction and wipe out of most parts of the southern and eastern U.S.A. The president is left with a complex situation at his hands, where he is stuck and doesn’t know what to do as the faith of his country is at stake. President Kennedy is in conflict as General Curtis LeMay wants to directly attack Cuba and invade their land to take over and get rid of the crisis that way. We can see in the beginning 20 minutes of the film, the general is shown talking to the president and arguing his case which seems like the most logical thing to do at this point, but the president ends up having a second option as he doesn’t want to take the risk of getting parts of the United States demolished and having to deal with worldwide conflict. The conflict that would o... ... middle of paper ... ...xactly went on in the White House, we can further understand why Kennedy, who greatly considered every American live and waited until everything was final to call a war, was so loved by the public and was one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had. If I were to remake the movie, I would change only one part. In this movie I, and many critics believe, Kevin O' Donnell was given too much credit for what he did. Although he did play a large part during the crisis I believe the movie should portray the true hero, Theodore Sorensen. This would not only make the movie more credible but could be used to prove an argument about the Cuban Nuclear Missile Crisis much like a documentary could. I recommend this movie to anyone interested in the Kennedy years but also to those who want to see whats its really like in the White House during a time of urgency.

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