In December, 1974, ABC Television broadcast a highly unusual teleplay: "The Missiles of October," a dramatization of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. What made it unusual was that, first, ABC preempted an entire Wednesday evening lineup to show the drama. Such "television events" were usually reserved for Sunday nights (when at various times the networks would show a "Sunday night movie" anyway). And second, at that time, it was rare to have anything like the fictionalization of a real-life event, especially with so many real-life figures being portrayed.
The film covers the Missile Crisis with a realism that shows what it must have been like for the actual participants. As it opens, Pres. Kennedy (William Devane) is mainly focused on the upcoming mid-term elections, when he expects that his party will lose seats. Then high-altitude photography drops the Crisis into his lap: the Russians are constructing nuclear missile sites in Cuba, which when completed will put the entire East Coast within seconds of a Russian strike during a nuclear attack.
And so, in great secrecy (at least initially), Kennedy assembles a team to advise him on the best course of action, which comes down to just two options: a preemptive air strike on the missile bases followed by a ground invasion; or a blockade of the island. Either course carries with it the risk of a nuclear exchange with the Soviets. In real life, of course, the two sides came terrifyingly close.
Looking back from perspective of nearly half a century (and more than that from the real-life event), certain things stand out. The production had an enormous cast, and was shot on videotape, which gives it an immediacy, as if the viewer was in the room with the participants; live television and the videotape of that era are indistinguishable. Unfortunately, tape is also a less stable medium than motion picture film, and now even seen on DVD or streaming, it shows its age.
But much of the casting was spot-on. William Devane had a short resume at the time and therefore didn't dominate the proceedings; with his hair styled like Kennedy's and affecting a Boston accent, he is about 85% the real article, and after a while you forget he's not the real JFK. (Surprisingly, one person *not* impressed by Devane was then-U. S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was quoted as saying he preferred Cliff Robertson's portrayal of his late brother in "PT-109" (1963).)
Robert Kennedy was played by Martin Sheen, who ironically was more well-known at the time. Some have criticized his accent for not being steady, but he does a good job at mimicking RFK's rapid, clipped speech. (Sheen has the distinction of later playing JFK himself in a 1983 miniseries, and for seven seasons, a fictional president on "The West Wing.") James Olson as Spec. Asst. McGeorge Bundy, and Michael Lerner as Press Secretary Pierre Salinger look surprisingly like their real-life counterparts, which enhances their portrayals. And Howard Da Silva looks convincingly stricken as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who set the Crisis in motion, but then tries desperately to put the genie back into the bottle.
On the other hand, Ralph Bellamy, sporting a full head of hair, was an odd choice to play Adlai Stevenson, who was famously the nearly bald politician for whom the term "egghead" was coined. Likewise, Ron Feinberg, an obscure character actor, was chosen to play Charles De Gaulle. He apparently looked so little like the real article that he's shot almost entirely in shadow and from behind.
Another odd decision: Lyndon Johnson, although then the vice-president and a member of Kennedy's "executive committee" that advised him during the Crisis, isn't portrayed at all. Yet Jackie Kennedy makes a brief appearance to provide a moment of comic relief when she drops a pair of tongs at an elegant White House dinner, creating a brief embarrassment. Like Feinberg, she's shot without ever showing her face, and the actress who played her is uncredited; it's even possible her identity was not preserved.
The story was told again in 2000 as the feature film "Thirteen Days," with a much bigger budget. Surprisingly, in the later film, Kevin Costner, though the biggest "name," did not play the president. Instead, Costner was White House aide Kenny O'Donnell, yielding the Kennedy role to Bruce Greenwood, who did a competent job despite resembling JFK less even than Devane. Watching the two films back-to-back would be a worthwhile exercise given that they cover almost exactly the same ground. But even so, "The Missiles of October" is itself a worthwhile film if you can find it; unfortunately, it's not being streamed, and the DVD is pretty hard to find.
The film covers the Missile Crisis with a realism that shows what it must have been like for the actual participants. As it opens, Pres. Kennedy (William Devane) is mainly focused on the upcoming mid-term elections, when he expects that his party will lose seats. Then high-altitude photography drops the Crisis into his lap: the Russians are constructing nuclear missile sites in Cuba, which when completed will put the entire East Coast within seconds of a Russian strike during a nuclear attack.
And so, in great secrecy (at least initially), Kennedy assembles a team to advise him on the best course of action, which comes down to just two options: a preemptive air strike on the missile bases followed by a ground invasion; or a blockade of the island. Either course carries with it the risk of a nuclear exchange with the Soviets. In real life, of course, the two sides came terrifyingly close.
Looking back from perspective of nearly half a century (and more than that from the real-life event), certain things stand out. The production had an enormous cast, and was shot on videotape, which gives it an immediacy, as if the viewer was in the room with the participants; live television and the videotape of that era are indistinguishable. Unfortunately, tape is also a less stable medium than motion picture film, and now even seen on DVD or streaming, it shows its age.
But much of the casting was spot-on. William Devane had a short resume at the time and therefore didn't dominate the proceedings; with his hair styled like Kennedy's and affecting a Boston accent, he is about 85% the real article, and after a while you forget he's not the real JFK. (Surprisingly, one person *not* impressed by Devane was then-U. S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was quoted as saying he preferred Cliff Robertson's portrayal of his late brother in "PT-109" (1963).)
Robert Kennedy was played by Martin Sheen, who ironically was more well-known at the time. Some have criticized his accent for not being steady, but he does a good job at mimicking RFK's rapid, clipped speech. (Sheen has the distinction of later playing JFK himself in a 1983 miniseries, and for seven seasons, a fictional president on "The West Wing.") James Olson as Spec. Asst. McGeorge Bundy, and Michael Lerner as Press Secretary Pierre Salinger look surprisingly like their real-life counterparts, which enhances their portrayals. And Howard Da Silva looks convincingly stricken as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who set the Crisis in motion, but then tries desperately to put the genie back into the bottle.
On the other hand, Ralph Bellamy, sporting a full head of hair, was an odd choice to play Adlai Stevenson, who was famously the nearly bald politician for whom the term "egghead" was coined. Likewise, Ron Feinberg, an obscure character actor, was chosen to play Charles De Gaulle. He apparently looked so little like the real article that he's shot almost entirely in shadow and from behind.
Another odd decision: Lyndon Johnson, although then the vice-president and a member of Kennedy's "executive committee" that advised him during the Crisis, isn't portrayed at all. Yet Jackie Kennedy makes a brief appearance to provide a moment of comic relief when she drops a pair of tongs at an elegant White House dinner, creating a brief embarrassment. Like Feinberg, she's shot without ever showing her face, and the actress who played her is uncredited; it's even possible her identity was not preserved.
The story was told again in 2000 as the feature film "Thirteen Days," with a much bigger budget. Surprisingly, in the later film, Kevin Costner, though the biggest "name," did not play the president. Instead, Costner was White House aide Kenny O'Donnell, yielding the Kennedy role to Bruce Greenwood, who did a competent job despite resembling JFK less even than Devane. Watching the two films back-to-back would be a worthwhile exercise given that they cover almost exactly the same ground. But even so, "The Missiles of October" is itself a worthwhile film if you can find it; unfortunately, it's not being streamed, and the DVD is pretty hard to find.