Naturally, just as I got up of my chair and took my first step towards the room in which all of our cleaning equipment is stored, the ingenious devil put on “Thirteen Days“, and used his silvered tongue to talk me into procrastinating for a while longer. It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon, and I believe his words were, “You have the day ahead of you!” Oh Gods, I am weak…

Anyway, “Thirteen Days” is the inside story about what went on in the Kennedy administration during the thirteen days long Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 (hence the title). It is told from the point of view of Kenny O’Donnell, political advisor to the President, and although it tends to diabolize the military men as rash war mongers, it is pretty fair and balanced. Not to mention accurate; neither I nor the guy I watched it with noticed any huge historical errors, and he’s on the final semester of his Master’s degree in history.

Anyway, “Thirteen Days” is a well written movie that makes a pretty fair attempt at describing the pressure an American president is under, from factions within his own government as well as from outside forces. It also displays the insane and unreasonable logic of the Cold War: “If we do this, they will do that, then we will be forced into doing this, and they will respond like that, and then wee’ll al die horribly in a nuclear holocaust. Because, you know, the value of the lives of several hundred million people is nothing compared to the importance of this nation not losing face.”

Luckily, the movie tells us, there are “good men” standing between the fanatical Cold Warriors and the infamous Red Button, and these men won’t so easily throw away the lives of half of humanity, but rather do their best to preserve peace and stuff. In other words, our lives are (or were) protected by noble pragmatists. Which is a message I can appreciate. Because, you know, pragmatists will beat idealists in 8 or so cases out of 10.

Anyway, there’s not much to pick on here. There’s some annoying stuff — some pompous lines and stuff like that — but nothing major. At least not anything that’s major on it’s own. All the little things, however, makes up quite a bit in the end (although I guess I’m just saying that to cover up that it mostly has to do with the most subjective parts of my taste), and I cannot in all fairness say that I liked this movie better than a 8.5/10. Which is a strong degree, by all means; even by my standards.