Thirteen Days (film)

Thirteen Days is a 2000 American historical political thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson. It dramatizes the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, seen from the perspective of the American political leadership. Kevin Costner stars as top White House assistant Kenneth P. O'Donnell, with Bruce Greenwood featured as President John F. Kennedy, Steven Culp as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Dylan Baker as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

While the film carries the same title as the 1969 book Thirteen Days by former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, it is in fact based on the 1997 book The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow. It is the second docudrama made about the crisis, the first being 1974's The Missiles of October, which was based on Kennedy's book. The 2000 film contains some newly declassified information not available to the earlier production, but takes greater dramatic license, particularly in its choice of O'Donnell as protagonist. Thirteen Days premiered on December 19, 2000 before being released by New Line Cinema in the United States on January 12, 2001, with Buena Vista Film Sales releasing in other territories. The film received generally positive reviews from critics who praised the screenplay and performances of the cast but was a box-office bomb, grossing $66.6 million against its $80 million budget.