WoodyH
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2000
- Messages
- 228
I rented 13 Days (about the Cuban Missile Crisis) the other night, as I hadn't seen it, and I was curious both about the film itself and about New Line's Infinifilm brand.
The movie was certainly quite decent (though Kevin Costner seemed to do his usual trick of being an inattentive babysitter for his accent, rather than actually adopting it), but what really struck me about it was the similarities to the current air of tension, fear, and paranoia sweeping the nation. While the setups for the two conflicts are different, the attitudes and feelings of many of the characters in the film were very familiar. In one of the (fascinating) historical background pieces, there were some 'man on the street' interviews with people at the time this all was going on - and just about anything that they said could easily have been said at any point within the past month. Average people worrying about their safety, whether or not it's right to go to war, whether a conflict is justified - very eerie to hear sentiments I've heard, read, and spoken since September 11th coming from the mouths of people forty years back.
It also made me very curious about just what's going on in the conference rooms of the White House these days. Considering the wide range of emotions and suggested courses of action during the Cuban Missile Crisis that only recently came to light (such as Kennedy's secret tapes of the meetings, as discussed in the extra materials on the disc), it really makes me wonder how much is being debated - and how much is known - behind the scenes, that we're not likely to find out for years, and possibly decades. I'm not one to try to raise paranoia or fears...the film just made me think a lot more than it probably would have had the events of September 11th not taken place. Until now (I'm 28, by the way, born in '73), I hadn't really had anything that could make me sympathise with the events portrayed - I could empathise to a certain extent, but I hadn't had any experiences that really came that close to what was happening in 1962. Desert Shield/Storm affected me to a certain extent, but not like this - it was too distant...a war on TV. Now, for better or for worse, it's all too easy for me to understand just what was going through peoples minds then - because it's going through mine, now.
Neat, neat stuff. Not necessarily comfortable. But very worthwhile.
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Woody Hanscom
Link Removed
The movie was certainly quite decent (though Kevin Costner seemed to do his usual trick of being an inattentive babysitter for his accent, rather than actually adopting it), but what really struck me about it was the similarities to the current air of tension, fear, and paranoia sweeping the nation. While the setups for the two conflicts are different, the attitudes and feelings of many of the characters in the film were very familiar. In one of the (fascinating) historical background pieces, there were some 'man on the street' interviews with people at the time this all was going on - and just about anything that they said could easily have been said at any point within the past month. Average people worrying about their safety, whether or not it's right to go to war, whether a conflict is justified - very eerie to hear sentiments I've heard, read, and spoken since September 11th coming from the mouths of people forty years back.
It also made me very curious about just what's going on in the conference rooms of the White House these days. Considering the wide range of emotions and suggested courses of action during the Cuban Missile Crisis that only recently came to light (such as Kennedy's secret tapes of the meetings, as discussed in the extra materials on the disc), it really makes me wonder how much is being debated - and how much is known - behind the scenes, that we're not likely to find out for years, and possibly decades. I'm not one to try to raise paranoia or fears...the film just made me think a lot more than it probably would have had the events of September 11th not taken place. Until now (I'm 28, by the way, born in '73), I hadn't really had anything that could make me sympathise with the events portrayed - I could empathise to a certain extent, but I hadn't had any experiences that really came that close to what was happening in 1962. Desert Shield/Storm affected me to a certain extent, but not like this - it was too distant...a war on TV. Now, for better or for worse, it's all too easy for me to understand just what was going through peoples minds then - because it's going through mine, now.
Neat, neat stuff. Not necessarily comfortable. But very worthwhile.
------------------
Woody Hanscom
Link Removed
