Surprisingly incoherent and boring

The first must-see film of the year.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

First, here's some technical information. "The Missiles of October" is a 1974 or '74 ABC-TV/Viacom television movie running at 155 minutes, probably a miniseries, shot on videotape in NTSC. The DVD version is an NTSC version. The picture quality of the DVD is extremely good considering the age and means of the production.I'm not sure about some of the information about what written material this movie was based on, but immediate informal research concludes that this movie was based partly on John F. Kennedy's book "Thirteen Days" about the Cuban Missile Crisis. If you remember this name somehow, it's probably due to the book's remake into a movie in 2000 (premiered in 1999) with the same title by director Roger Donaldson, with Kevin Costner in a co-starring role.The name is a reference to a book entitled "The Guns of August," a book about the Great War (a.k.a. WWI) addressing problems of the combination of the "real politik" philosophical paradigm, the German words for realism--a study of politics from the linking of the world through self-interest and armed conflict--with the virtue of the paradigm of idealism. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October, the movie's name, "The Missiles of October," is a comment on the former to denote the potential seriousness of the incidents in this crisis which were mainly in the drama of JFK's decisions to avert nuclear war against the communistic U.S.S.R.The movie has an exceptional cast, and a large one, with actors with long and noticeable careers in cinema long before 1973, even in the days of black-and-white. Otherwise, Soviet Premier Khrushchev is played by Howard DaSilva, who had memorably co-starred in the film version of the stage musical "1776" playing Ben Franklin, the delegate and inventor; in Joseph Losey's film "M"; and, in "The Great Gatsby" with Robert Redford. Also, John Kennedy's brother Robert is played by Martin Sheen, and he had went on to star in "Apocalypse Now" and several other films.The thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis has since become a subject of study, and this film should be recommended to anyone studying this moment of history, because it is a very literary translation, playing out with the drama being solely located in the scripts themselves: both the screenplay script and the actual international relations scripts from which this movie seems to borrow so much.In comparison between this 1974 television movie to the 2000 film version, the t.v. movie is very talky, but still manages quite well to pull off the drama which is mostly in the script. The film version has the same dramatic themes obviously, but they are much more well-funded with expensive shots of military crafts both air and sea, an even larger cast, and never-before-seen footage of real nuclear explosions, this time in beautifully full color film rather than the black-and-white stock for the videotaped t.v. movie. The theatrical film version lacks the character of the Soviet Premier, and so it seems much less "talky" than the t.v. version. The t.v. version had already made JFK as the central figure only to tell the story in dramatic sequence rather than in defense of him since it is based on JFK's book, so his characterization is like a lion, as this method is the best way to tell the story that is virtually his anyway. If it had not done this with his perspective, it would've decreased the suspense. The television movie deserves a lot of credit for being able to maintain that suspense through the excellent cast and script, much of which is taken from historic speeches. Ultimately, the t.v. movie is about how JFK had de-pressurized the system, where the film version does this much more in such a way as to imprint an image of JFK in memory.In result of the historical events as they are portrayed in the t.v. movie, the JFK character mentions his own lack of air support in the Bay of Pigs invasion. It connects the Soviet Premier's placement of missiles in Cuba as a partial belief of the impotence of a U.S. president that is younger than his first son. Nevertheless, with JFK responding by cutting off Cuba from the Soviets, the Americans and the Soviets begin towing the line, in addition to the nuclear threat, as JFK is not only aware of the nuclear missiles the Soviets have placed in Cuba, but is threatening to attack on the moment those missiles become operational. Finally, after military maneuvers and the sole casualty of an American spy plane, the two leaders finally defuse the situation on agreement, in-turn avoiding nuclear war.Considering history outside of the movie, it could be theorized that the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the subsequent removal of a U.S. base in Turkey, and a decision to remove troops from Vietnam had been reasons for a CIA retaliatory assassination of JFK, as it had commonly done so in covert "black" operations around the world. And so, this movie has significance from a perspective of international relations history, additional to the events of the movie, in that time period where these things happened. The movie seems very close in its historical reference, and the spoken words are from speeches of the political figures represented in this movie.

I find this movie now on DVD one of the most compelling works of art it has ever been my pleasure to behold. This movie is from the less is more school. No high tech camera angles and silly special effects get in your way here. No stupid insipid love story tangles its way through the plot where some couple must give you today's obligatory R Rated steamy love scene at some point when you just wished the action would go on. This movie is just cold hearts, raw nerves, hardened steal will's of both sides exposed in abundance as the world of the early 1960's creeped toward thermonuclear oblivion in the Cuban Missile Crisis.Brinksmanship and a world tittering on the brink of a testosterone cliff a fall from which guranteed no return to life as it existed before is what this movie was about. Missiles of October is told in a play format. The sets are obviously sets so you do not waste your time on the decorations of the people or the places. You simply are given a reference of where you are by the set. The real action is the dialogue the intrique in the tangled the goings on. This movie works on a level of raw emotion. The missiles of October is a movie stripped bare of the heavy syrup and confectionary sugar laden movies of today. The Missiles of October does not spoon feed the audience each moment of their movie experience till only one rather inexcapable formulalic conclusion offered by the screen writer can be reached.The Cuban Missile Crisis was a series of mis-steps wrong judgement calls and finally at the 11th hour some common sense where. In this movie both sides The Soviet Union and the United States had to get off their high horses and admit we together do not want to end human kinds existence as a species on this earth and take almost every other living thing with us as we exit. The fact that the set's look deliberately cheesy and the acting is done as a play just makes the truly superior acting stand out and grab you all that much more. Oh to say I was pleased with The Missiles of October is to dabble in understatement up past your neck for I in all ways loved it such that I can not be without two copies of this in my home. One to watch and one to keep in a safe fire resistant place. The Missile's of October blew me away because it is true, this happened in real life. I was just a baby at the time but I lived through this time. This movie in play format is awesome because the acting was first rate and people this was high drama life or death stakes would have affected all of us had it gone wrong because it was all real life baby and no movie gets any better than that in my humble opinion.Oh and its like way educational too so buy this one its one of the WOLF's major must haves like number one on my serious subjects list.

Some have berated the "The Missiles of October" for being over-long. Nonsense! (One genius who complained did, however, like the performance of "Marin Short". Sounds like a 12 year-old. Hey, maybe he is!) It would have been over-long if it were a boring story with boring performances. But "The Missiles of October" is neither. The story is, of course, riveting, whether you were around during the early sixties or not. And the performances - the guy who cast the three main characters, JFK (William Devane), RFK (Martin Sheen) and Khrushchev (Howard Da Silva), should have got an Emmy. Martin Sheen may have over-done Bobby Kennedy a bit, but it should be noted, that RFK's "Kennedy accent" was much thicker than JFK's, almost to the point of self-caricature.Nor is the film "dated," as another reviewer would have it. The TV claustrophobic atmosphere is in perfect keeping with the tight, closed, suffocating tension which actually existed in the real situation. The crisis did not occur out of doors, or in halls - it occurred in a few rooms. "The Missiles of October" possesses the hallmark of classic drama: though you may know how it ends, you want to watch it again and again.

This movie is a long 2 and 1/2 hours! It hardly had any war-type action. However, the saving grace is the great performances of William Devane as Kennedy and Marin Short also does a great job. If your interested in American history during the Cuban Missle Crisis, this is your movie!