Parkland

After recently watching Bill O'Reilly's 'Killing Kennedy'I prefer this movie over that one. Here's why. The JFK story has no more new insights for me. The Oswalt story could be interestingbut the O'Reilly movie is rather flat.

This movie looks at the events through the eyes of all the other characters. It has things that I never heard of before. Without spoiling too muchOswalt's mother is a pill. And I never knew of that happening in the FBI office. And I can't believe the fighting in that operating room. That's insane.

This is not a regular flowing movie. With these varied storiesit was never going to have the regular structure. It is scatter shoot storytelling. InterestinglyI found most of the stories fascinating and compelling. I wanted to know each character and their stories. And the acting was all top rate. It is the JFK assassination movie to watch.

Are we any closer to the truth? Has Walter Cronkite suddenly appeared on channel 4 to tell us that it was all just a close call? Did Lee Oswald have his day in court?

We are all damaged goods in the aftermath. Poor Zapruder: the horror in his face as played by Giamattihe'd never feel pleasure in running his 8mm camera to catch his grandchildren playing. Secret Service agent Sorrells reminding all that they dropped the ballthe sense of shame he must have felt. Hostyrealizing he could have stopped it all if he had only... just ... followed through.

This isn't a time travel story showing how the past can't be changedor an explanation of how his head travelled "backand to the left..." Nor is it a parodywith a spit ball travelling "backand to the left..." or a National Lampoon of the first ten thousand days of JFK.

This is as close to a documentary as could be giving us a horrible taste in our mouths how events can turn cruelhow they can be relentless and how wethose of us who were alive in those dayscan be drawn back into it and the fog of remembrance is ripped awayrenewed with little details.

Parkland was the name of the hospital that President Kennedy was taken to after being shot in Dallas and Peter Landesman's film deals with the events of that day and the days that followed. It's a somewhat better film than the critics gave it credit for though it doesn't add anything to either the truth or the legend and prefers instead to concentrate on how the assassination affected the people on the groundthe hospital staffthe secret service agentsthe Oswald family etc.

It's well cast and well played by some very talented players(Marcia Gay Harden as a nurseBilly Bob ThorntonRon Livingston and David Harbour as secret service menPaul Giametti as Abraham ZapruderJackie Weaver and James Badge Dale as Oswald's mother and brother; even Zac Efron as a young doctor who fails to save Kennedy's life is excellent). Landesman shoots it in a semi-documentary which is fine though perhaps the editing is a little on the busy side; he doesn't seem to like to hold a frame for more than a few seconds at a time. I don't knowof coursehow close any of this is to the facts but presumably the film was researched to within a few inches of its life and no matter how often this story has been told on screen it continues to be very moving.

"This was not supposed to happen!" Dallas TexasNovember 22nd 1963. President Kennedy is in town for a campaign stop and is on his way to the Dallas Trade Mart for a speech. He never makes it. While riding in his motorcade he is struck in the head by a bullet and is rushed to Parkland hospital. A staff of doctors do all they can to save his life but are unsuccessful and he becomes the 4th President to be assassinated. This is what happened next. I will start by saying that I am extremely interested in the Kennedy assassination. I have tons of booksmovies and other memorabilia of the Kennedy assassination and administration. I won't bore you with what I know or even my opinion of what happened because that would distract from the review. What I will say is that this is nothing like JFK. That is one of my favorite movies ever but it is more or less an opinion and more conspiratorial. This movie doesn't really deal with the assassination head on but rather the out lying players. The movie focuses on Zapruder (Giamatti)the man who took the famous movie. Forrest Sorrels (Thornton) the head of the secret service. You also see the actions of countless medical staffOswald's family and the Dallas F.B.I. You see the actions of these people and how the assassination affected them rather then what all the other movies focus on. Overalla different kind of Kennedy assassination movie. It doesn't take sidesjust shows how people acted. I really enjoyed this a lot. I give it an A.

Unlike the highly controversial Executive Action and later Oliver Stone's JFKParkland takes no position as to the wider implications of a conspiracy involving the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Instead we get a rather sober docudrama about the four days that if you lived through them you remember every detail that was reported until President Kennedy was lowered into his grave at Arlington.

None of the famous people of the event are shown here at any length. Some are shown brieflysome actors play John and Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The Oswalds are given more exposure. But the film concentrates on the peripheral characters of the dramasecret service agentsdoctors at Parkland Hospitalpresidential aides. A bit of the drama of the instant transition of power is involved as the office in a flash of gunfire transfers from one man to another.

Some familiar faces are here. Billy Bob Thornton is the Secret Service agent in charge of the Dallas areaZac Efron is the young trauma surgeon who makes a vain effort at saving a dead manPaul Giammati is Abraham Zapruder who took the most famous home movies in the history of the planet.

My favorite is Jacki Weaver the Australian actress who plays Marguerite Oswald. Her son's instant notoriety has elevated as she thinks to some kind of celebrity status. Today that woman would find herself a server and get some kind of blog. Weaver plays her one suit shy of a full deck.

As it does not deal with large issuesjust small screw ups Parkland does not have the epic sweep that JFK does. Still it's an interesting and different look at the four most traumatic days of the last century.