Inside JFK's White House: The Myth of John F. Kennedy and Thirteen Days (2000)

Andrew Priest examines Roger Donaldson’s film Thirteen Days about President John F. Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Instead of focusing on the historical accuracy of the film, as some other studies have done, Priest explores the way it frames Kennedy as a wise leader, conforming to positive popular views of him that had become firmly established in people’s minds by the time this film was made. Priest argues that the film’s subject matter and depiction of Kennedy reinforce important aspects of a Kennedy mystique, especially the notion that Kennedy represented all that was good about America and that the United States has been in decline since then. To show this, it also compares this representation to other films about Kennedy and some biopics of other presidents.