Parkland, 2013.
Directed by Peter Landesman.
Starring Zac Efron, Tom Welling, Colin Hanks, Marcia Gay Harden, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Giamatti and James Badge Dale.
SYNOPSIS:
Set during the days that immediately followed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Peter Landesman’s Parkland examines the impact felt by those directly involved in the shocking event. In his adaptation of Vincent Bugliosi’s novel, “Four days in November,” Landesman concentrates on the implications the shooting caused; changing the lives of the people affected forever.
Many of us have seen the famous “cine-film” footage of that fateful day, November 22nd 1963, when the then President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, was shot dead. That footage was filmed by Abraham Zapruder (played by Paul Giamatti) and from the moment he began filming, he would forever be known for that piece of film. Jim Carrico (Zac Efron) was the Doctor to whom JFK was brought to try and save his life; he would also be asked to try and save the life of the President’s assassin, Lee-Harvey Oswald, surely a massive moral dilemma to face. The film does a good job of uncovering the stories of these people, rather than concentrating on why the President was shot and the saturated re-run of the conspiracy theory surrounding the event. This is a refreshing change and although there is some “cover-up action” from the enforcement services, the film doesn’t deviate from its path of well-paced story-telling.
To begin with, I was surprised by Robert Oswald’s (James Badge Dale) almost unsurprised attitude on learning of his brother’s apparent actions. However, as the film progressed, I felt this worked well to pull the attention away from the culprit and again, more towards the way an innocent party, Robert Oswald, describing how his own and even his young children’s lives would forever be tainted by the event. The casting team did a good job here; no huge names that overpower their respective roles, instead allowing us to watch their future’s change over split second events.
Lots of good visuals here too, amplifying the initial shock and horror of it all; incredible amounts of crimson splashes on blindingly white hospital uniforms and the loss of emotional control by several members of the fallen President’s immediate aides as they barge their way from the hospital with the coffin onto a plane, ripping up seats to accommodate their precious cargo.
For me this film succeeds in highlighting how the innocence of a country, and parts of the world, was lost forever as the events unfolded. It tells a different tale to those films which look at the conspiratorial side of that day.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
J-P Wooding – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published March 31, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
