PARKLAND  3.0***

 

 

      Parkland" tells the story of the events that unfold on November 22nd, 1963, the day that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. After being shot President Kennedy was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where a team of respectable medical personal did everything in their power to save him. This film also incorporates the story of Abraham Zapruder,  the man that  shot the most watched home movie in history. "Parkland" also covers a little of Lee Harvey Oswald but more so of his brother and mother. It also has time for the Dallas Police, the Secret Service, and the FBI.

This is docu-drama with an emphasis on the documentary side of things. Its based on a heavily researched book, "Four Days in November”. The movie is so fast paced you would not think 94 minutes could fly by that quickly! The panic, fear, confusion and shock of the Secret Service agents, Dallas Police, FBI, Parkland Hospital staff, witnesses, news media and the American public is non-stop!!!!!.  The words the actors speak are supposed to be as close to reality as possible, and not some script writer's attempt to suggest a conspiracy theory.

Paul Giamatti is superb as Abraham Zapruder, the reluctant hero who recorded the most famous home movie in history. .James Badge Dale nails it as Robert Oswald, the assassin's brother who  has to deal with a new, terrible reality. He makes you feel his disgust for his brother's actions, but at the same time, feel his sympathy and sorrow for Lee Harvey.

Zac Efron and Marcia Gay Harden are fine as the primary Emergency Room doctor and nurse, who without warning, are forced to deal with a fatal gunshot wound to the most important person in the world. You can see the initial fear and trepidation on their faces before they snap out of their daze and try to save the President's life. And then these same people must deal with the shooting of Oswald. Yes, the President and Oswald were both sent to Parkland Hospital and attended to by the same doctors and nurses !!

 Ron Livingston, plays FBI agent James Hosty, the man who was assigned the case of Lee Harvey Oswald after he returned from Russia. The FBI's investigation of Oswald was going nowhere fast, and Hosty describes Oswald as a "nobody." But as his boss screams at him, a NOBODY who just shot the President! The viewer feels sorry for Hosty as he is being forced to compromise his ethics and integrity to help the FBI  avoid the embarrassment sure to follow if the world finds out Oswald came to the FBI office in Dallas ten days before the assassination and threatened Hosty.

Billy Bob Thornton  is one of the most talented actors in Hollywood. He jumps off the screen as Forrest Sorrels, the Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service in Dallas.   And then there is Jacki Weaver, an Australian actress, who plays the mother of the Oswald brothers. Phenomenal!!! She knocks it out of the park. Quickly, the viewer sees just how crazy she is, and how in the middle of such a horror as the assassination of the President, she embarrasses her son Robert with her utterly preposterous claims about her son, Lee.

While this is quite good, I’d recommend you wait for it to come out on DVD, Netflix or TV.

Clark