Better Days

Not to reminisce about the good ol' days of Mother Russia, but that Cold War was one hell of a narrative device-the perfect paranoid, apocalyptic fodder for all sorts of doomsday scenarios. Without those rascally Ruskies, poor old James Bond suffers quite an identity crisis when the biggest threat to world security that can be found is some media mogul; political dramas generally suffer even more with no red glow looming across the pond. If there are no clear bad guys, can we really have faith in the good ones?

Thirteen Days revives the Cold War with a powerful nostalgia for an era in which our ideologies were simple and well intentioned and our leaders were brave and moral men. The film works an intelligent, engaging and downright patriotic drama out of one of the ultimate historical showdowns of all time.

This breed of nostalgia does not stand alone in a year that saw the resurgence of honorable and worthy presidential figures in pop culture. Just as Josiah Bartlet in West Wing gave TV viewers a comforting executive shoulder on which to turn away from a disgraceful election season, this portrayal of John F. Kennedy by Bruce Greenwood resurrects one of our country's most cherished commanders-in-chief in his finest hour. Supported by his brother (Steven Culp, in a nuanced and dimensional portrayal of the younger but equally wise Bobby) and besieged with advice from a vast array of political figures, Kennedy is a man beleaguered with the immense power to decide the fate of a nation, with no clear way to use it. Greenwood's performance is nothing short of a triumph, embodying the spirit of this deeply thoughtful, religious family man where other actors might have been lost beneath a junky "Maaawy fellow Americans" accent and a hard political shell. His quietly calculating assessment of the increasingly impossible situation is fascinating: a political superhero who maintains calm hope, and an awesome dignity in the face of the menacing archenemy and seemingly unwinnable odds. This is a man fighting not just for the sake of America, but for the world-and the weight of that bears down on the audience through his struggle.

This film makes the history that every one of us read in eighth grade textbooks come alive in ways that today's dramas can't, even as we live through them. Honestly-election recounts or global thermonuclear war? Thirteen Days allows us to live within the White House and feel the anxious gaze of a nation in a time of need. With those damn Reds almost never seen but always, always felt, this drama oozes suspense and inspiration.

Notice, if you will, that I haven't once mentioned Mr. Costner. Though his name is the only one to appear on the movie poster, he adds nothing to this film but a bad accent and some considerable historical inaccuracies. Sorry, Field of Dreams fans, but Costner is still possibly the most inexplicable of all the overrated A-list actors. It is a tribute to the excellence of the other elements in this movie that he does not sink it with his presence.