Kevin Costner made his mark in the eighties and the early nineties with Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, The Untouchables, and his Oscar-winning breakthrough Dances with Wolves. After which he used his newfound fame to produce and star in some notoriously expensive bombs. Once the smoke cleared, this once bankable star began taking on roles meant to resurrect his past successes. Films like For Love of the Game and Message in a Bottle did little but offer an easy target for critics. The fact Costner still has a career is a testament to either persistence or dumb luck. Even so, why Hollywood still allows him to have creative control over a production is a mystery, given that more bankable stars have been ostracized for less.

Now I really don’t care how many lackluster films Costner chooses to produce or star in. What does bother me though is how a compelling film like Thirteen Days can become hobbled by what I observed to be an overblown self-serving performance. Watching this film, one may get the idea that Special Assistant to the President, Kenneth O’Donnell, was more instrumental in preventing a war than either JFK or his brother the Attorney General. Historical facts about O’Donnell’s involvement during this trying time were, by the filmmaker’s own admission, not well documented. And while there’s always the chance that Costner was being as true to O’Donnell’s character as possible, my gut was telling me that there was a little too much of Costner’s ego in the interpretation.

It’s October 1962 and a United States spy plane photographs some little cigar-like shapes off the coast of Florida on the island of Cuba. Closer inspection reveals that these are not top-shelf vegueros but tactical medium-range nuclear weapons. With this revelation in hand, the White House goes into a state of alert. President Kennedy wants answers but also wants to refrain from any knee-jerk reaction that could push the nation into a position of starting World War III.

Not surprising, and in relatively formulaic fashion, the military is made to look like a bunch of blood-thirsty war mongers. If Costner’s "hired heavy" performance shot out one foot of this film, the farcical portrayals of those generals by Kennedy’s side took a toe off the other. One has to believe that at least a few of those men were genuinely struggling with difficult choices and not simply looking to blow Cuba off the map. For filmmakers to make such negative generalizations is nothing less than irresponsible and disrespectful of those men who would give their lives to defend our nation.

Those two flaws notwithstanding, what remains of Thirteen Days is a rather competent thriller. Sequences involving U.S. blockades attempting to stop Russian ships from reaching Cuba, spy planes entering Cuba with a clear risk of being shot down, and a plethora of politically botched near misses added a measure of consistent tension throughout this film. Also worth mentioning were the excellent jobs both Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp did as John and Robert Kennedy. Not only were their performances more subtle than Mr. Costner’s, but their vocal intonations seemed second nature, while Costner’s hackneyed "Kennedian accent" made me wince every time.

While I’m not sure why the "Infinitifilm" moniker was chosen over their "Platinum" label, New Line Cinema continues their streak and produces a consistent, feature-packed DVD. Allowing the end user a choice of whether to view the extras within the context of the film or as stand-alone elements, the Infinitifilm treatment offered everything from educational historical info to behind-the-scenes tidbits. Also included were two commentaries as well as a 48-minute documentary on the crisis.

Video quality was rich and colorful except for the ugly MPEG artifacts apparent within some of the interiors. A rather phony-looking exterior replica of the White House stood out like a sore thumb. I found the Dolby Digital soundtrack was what you would expect for a film of this type. Surround information logically filled in when planes flew threw the air or military action took center stage, but it wasn’t what one would call exceptional or all that visceral.