zardoz-13 Review of Parkland

Parkland (2013)

An Above-average Account of the JFK Assassination Saga

[7/10 · 15 November 2013]

Former "New York Times Magazine" investigative journalist Peter Landesman made his cinematic debut as a writer and director on "Parkland," an unusual, off-beat account of the tragic Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963. Compared with the more high profile speculative sagas like "Executive Action" and "JFK," Landesman's scrupulous, atmospheric account of the events during those four fateful November days neither points fingers nor presents conspiracy theories. Landesman used Vincent Bugliosi's detailed book ""Four Days in November" as the basis for his adaptation, but he concentrates on the lives of several individuals who played roles in the real life event. Although President Kennedy and his wife Jackie appear in documentary footage, they do not emerge as the chief characters in "Parkland." Secret Service agents are shown scrambling Kennedy's blood-splattered body into the hospital, and Landesman concentrated more on the futile efforts to save JFK's life than on JFK himself. Jackie is shown handing off bits of her husband's brain and skull, but she doesn't assume front and center prominence. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers a line or two, but he is accorded little prominence. Meanwhile, real-life characters on the periphery of the action, such as amateur photographer Abraham Zapruder, Dallas Secret Service Chief Forrest Sorrels, the Parkland doctors and nurses, and Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert. Landesman observes on the "Parkland" commentary track about these characters, "This isn't about Johnson. This isn't about Kennedy. This is about the Secret Service agents, the doctors. These are the people I was interested in. You know, we think of these as the small stories. They're not. They're the bigger stories. This is where the real drama happens." According to Landsman, these stories about people on the sidelines who were essentially nobodies proved to be "the more interesting and compelling stories." The performances are poignant, and "Parkland" has moments of dramatic urgency that are off-set by lackluster moments. As powerful as "Parkland" often it, it contains far too many moments that just thud. Had an energetic director like Paul Greengrass of "The Bourne Supremacy" helmed this ensemble effort, "Parkland" might have been an adrenalin-laced classic. As it is, this Tom Hanks production qualifies as above-average, but it loses momentum in most of scenes involving the Oswald brothers and their crackpot mother. The best scenes take place in the Parkland emergency room when the doctors toiled to revive Kennedy and later fight to save Oswald. The scene when the Secret Service agents refused to let the Dallas Medical Examiner keep the body to perform an autopsy is good, too. Later, the breathless urgency with which the Secret Service agents rush Kennedy's body back to Air Force One is gripping. The juxtaposition of the Kennedy funeral with the Oswald funeral is illuminating. Zapruder's anguish is palatable, and Paul Giamatti as Zapruder is terrific. Since this occurred fifty years ago, "Parkland" shows numerous shots of characters smoking cigarettes. When the end credits roll, Landesman gives the cast an encore and then shows what the real-life people resemble. Audiences obsessed with the Kennedy Assassination will definitely find "Parkland" enthralling more than those who don't care.