IMDb > The Missiles of October (1974) (TV)

The Missiles of October (1974) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   391 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 10% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Anthony Page
Writers:
Stanley R. Greenberg (writer)
Robert F. Kennedy (book)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Missiles of October on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 December 1974 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | History | Thriller more
Plot:
Based in part on Robert F. Kennedy's book, "Thirteen Days," this film profiles the Kennedy Administration's actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Won Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 8 nominations more
User Comments:
Simply One of the MOST Compelling Movie Play's EVER! more (16 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)

William Devane ... President John F. Kennedy
Ralph Bellamy ... U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson
Howard Da Silva ... Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev

James Hong ... U.N. Secretary-General U Thant

Martin Sheen ... Att. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James T. Callahan ... David Powers, Special Assistant to the President
Peter Canon ... Admiral's Aide
Keene Curtis ... John McCone, Director CIA
Charles Cyphers ... Press Photographer

Clifford David ... Theodore Sorensen, Special Counsel
John Dehner ... Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson
Francis De Sales ... Senator
Peter Donat ... David Ormsby-Gore, British Ambassador to U.S.
Andrew Duggan ... Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Army Chief of Staff
Richard Eastham ... Gen. David M. Shoup, USMC Commandant
Dana Elcar ... Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Gene Elman ... Russian Presidium Member
Ron Feinberg ... Gen. Charles De Gaulle
Michael Fox ... Soviet Marshal
Arthur Franz ... Congressman Charles A. Halleck
Larry Gates ... Secretary of State Dean Rusk
Jerome Guardino ... Reporter
Ted Hartley ... American General
Bern Hoffman ... Russian Presidium Member
Richard Karlan ... Chief of the Presidium
Stacy Keach Sr. ... W.E. Knox, President Westinghouse International
Wright King ... Sen. Richard Russell
Will Kuluva ... Valerian Zorin
Paul Lambert ... John Scali, ABC Correspondent
Doreen Lang ... Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln, President Kennedy's Secretary

Michael Lerner ... Pierre Salinger, Whitehouse Press Secretary
Robert P. Lieb ... Gen. Curtis LeMay, Air Force Chief of Staff
John McMurtry ... Yefgani Yeftashanko
Byron Morrow ... Sen. William Fullbright
Stewart Moss ... Kenneth O'Donnell, Special Assistant to the President
Stuart Nisbet ... Reporter
Buddy Ochoa ... Television Assistant
James Olson ... McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs
Dennis Patrick ... Llewellyn Thompson, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union
Albert Paulsen ... Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin

Nehemiah Persoff ... Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko
William Prince ... Secretary of the Treasury, C. Douglas Dillon

John Randolph ... Undersecretary of State George Ball
Toby Russ ... Waiter
Kenneth Tobey ... Adm. George W. Anderson Jr., Chief of Naval Operations
Serge Tschernisch ... Soviet Stenographer
Jay Vallera ... Cuban Delegate

George Wyner ... Civillian Aide
Harris Yulin ... KGB Agent Alexander Fomin
more
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
150 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Company:
Viacom Productions more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This was originally shot on videotape, and first shown in this format, but when it was sold to local stations, it was transferred to film. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: President Kennedy's address to the nation is shown as being made from the Oval Office, with the windows behind the President's desk visible in the TV picture. While the actual address did originate from that location, a neutral gray backdrop was placed behind the President's chair, so none of the real background is visible in the tape of the actual telecast. more
Quotes:
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev: [thinking about President Kennedy on the other side of the world, before being interrupted again] Just now, I work and he sleeps. Then, he works and I sleep.
[pauses]
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev: Perhaps soon we both sleep...
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in The Goonies (1985) more

FAQ

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful.
Simply One of the MOST Compelling Movie Play's EVER!, 31 January 2004
10/10
Author: Wolf (alphaspace) from Baltimore, Maryland

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.

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