Review of Thirteen Days

Introduction

Thirteen Days looks back at a fortnight in October 1962 where the world was on the brink of self-destruction. At the height of the cold war, the Russians transported nuclear missiles to Cuba. American spy planes spotted the arms build up and President John F Kennedy was faced with the possibility that the Russians could launch a "first-strike" attack on America which would effectively wipe out much of the country before they could retaliate.

Kennedy`s problems weren`t helped by a military that was desperate to go in all guns blazing and take out the missile sites and associated troops, without giving due consideration to the political consequences of doing so.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of a very high standard throughout. The print is free from dirt and grain (except on some historical footage), and shows no sign of any compression problems.

The film is set primarily in the White House, as the politicians battle against the military for restraint, and also includes footage from Cuba as the missiles are readied. All of this is exceptionally well filmed and looks very convincing indeed. Of particular note is the sequence where an American spy plane is over flying Cuba and attracts the unwanted attention of a Surface to Air missile battery, and there is also a visually impressive low-level reconnaissance flight.

Audio

The sound on the film is as impressive as the video - the dialogue, which is the mainstay of the movie, is powerfully delivered and sounds fantastic. The score and sounds effects are also very well presented, with the military scenes of particular note, including the afore-mentioned SAM missile scene.

Features

Thirteen Days is an Infinifilm release - which is New Line`s new way of delivering extra materials. If you have the Infinifilm feature turned on, you can jump out of the film at numerous points to see behind the scenes footage, or historical information. In the other release in this series, Rush Hour 2, this was quite gimmicky, but in Thirteen Days, the true power and usefulness of the feature (and indeed the DVD medium) quickly becomes evident.

The extras are also available separately for those who would rather watch the film uninterrupted, and include an excellent 48 minute documentary, a historical commentary featuring archive audio of J F Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Kenny O`Donnell plus new interviews with Pierre Salinger and Sergei Khrushchev. There are also biographies, a historical information subtitle track, deleted scenes, visual effects deconstructions, another documentary on bringing history to the cinema, filmographies and DVD-ROM features.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case which contains an insert explaining how Infinifilm works and details the 32 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Overall, Thirteen Days is a very good movie, superbly made, brilliantly acted and wonderfully presented on this DVD.

Giles has already described this as the definitive document on the Cuban Missile crisis, and I would agree - New Line have provided an excellent package with the DVD, which contains not only a good film, but a staggering amount of background information.

Recommended.