Parkland (2013)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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 Giamatti, he'd never feel pleasure in running his 8mm camera to catch his grandchildren playing. Secret Service agent Sorrells reminding all that they dropped the ball, the sense of shame he must have felt. Hosty, realizing 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 changed, or an explanation of how his head travelled "back, and to the left..." Nor is it a parody, with a spit ball travelling "back, and 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 cruel, how they can be relentless and how we, those of us who were alive in those days, can be drawn back into it and the fog of remembrance is ripped away, renewed with little details.

When I first saw the trailer for "Parkland", I was incredibly excited to see a dramatized version of the events surrounding 11/22/63. But than, "thanks" to some terrible critical reviews, the film didn't even make theaters (only in limited release) and went straight to home video. In all my years watching movies, there are very few occasions I can say that the critics have been more wrong.For a basic plot summary, "Parkland" tells the story of 11/22/63 and the next few days afterwards. The story is told from a number of different perspectives, including... -The doctors and nurses (Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, Marcia Gay Harden) who worked on both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald (Jeremy Strong) at Parkland Memorial hospital in Dallas. -Robert Oswald (James Badge Dale) and mother Marguerite (Jacki Weaver) of the supposed killer. -F.B.I. Agent James Hosty (Ron Livingston) who leads the national investigation into the homicide. -Forrest Sorrels (Billy Bob Thornton), the lead Secret Service man on that fateful day. -Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti), the man standing on Dealey Plaza who captured the assassination on his 16mm hand-held camera.This movie is filled with drama and palpable tension. Even though it is just a basic re-telling of the events, those events in and of themselves are enough to carry the weight...nothing contrived is even needed. Though I know a decent amount about those fateful days anyway, it was fascinating and emotionally-charged to see how all those scenes may have actually played out.The casting/acting is also spectacular. I can't say that there was one noticeably bad performance in the bunch. Even an actor like Efron, with a reputation completely different from his type of role here, fits in effortlessly. Considering this was the directorial debut of Peter Landsman, that is quite a feat. The film was also produced by Tom Hanks, whose track record on historical fiction is unmatched.I cannot, for the life of me, understand why this film received reviews bad enough to scrap a large theatrical release. Perhaps it is because it assumes a familiarity with the events it describes. Had I been completely ignorant of any of those events, the movie moves quickly enough (with only about an hour and a half runtime) that maybe I would have felt a bit overwhelmed. Other than that, though, this is one that the critics got completely wrong.Overall, "Parkland" essentially does for the events of 11/22/63 what "Flight 93" did for the events of 9/11. It takes the historical evidence and shows you what those scenes most likely looked like in actual form. "Parkland" is not biased or preachy...it just sticks to the evidence.

I have a keen and long-standing interest in the assassination of JFK. While this movie did not appear to have a particular agenda -- it was based on Bugliosi's book, but was simply a retelling of the immediate aftermath of the assassination -- it did leave me wondering, what was the point? Do we really need a movie that DOESN'T present a POV on this topic? Perhaps if it was more in-depth and accurate, I'd have felt differently. Also, the number of factual errors, many around the timeline of certain events, others in the details, was disappointing. There are numerous reliable sources -- interviews, photographs, and the like -- to render the errors inexcusable. The presentation was matter-of-fact, but the story was not compelling. We were drawn to no particular character or angle. Whether one views it as a documentary or entertainment, it fails in either regard and ultimately disappoints in both. 6 stars because the topic interests me and the movie prompted me to research certain matters, which was an interesting side effect. My scale:1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre"6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons8- Very Good. Would watch again and recommend to others9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings10 - A Classic (6 of 430 movies have received this)

I currently reside in Dallas, TX. Whenever friends or family members come to visit, one of the things on their list to see is the 6th floor book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his infamous shot to kill President John F. Kennedy. The site is now a museum, and there's actually an "X" painted on the asphalt where the bullet hit. You can still stand on the grassy knoll and picture in your mind the events of that horrible day. Countless movies and TV shows have been made that have documented or told narrative stories about Kennedy's death, but none quite like Peter Landesman's 'Parkland'.The title refers to the name of the hospital where JFK was pronounced dead. A couple of days later, Lee Harvey Oswald was also rushed to Parkland and declared dead after his own shooting by Jack Ruby. Parkland hospital still exists in Dallas today, and is one of the busiest medical centers in the DFW area.This is not a JFK movie that involves conspiracies, motives or even much of the President himself. In fact, although the film is called 'Parkland', it's not even fully set at the hospital. This account of the JFK assassination is all about the chaos that surrounded the event from the time that the bullet hit the President to Oswald's funeral, which happened within a span of a couple of days. Rather than focus on just one character, it's an ensemble drama that provides tiny glimpses of the President and his wife, the doctors and nurses at Parkland, the police, FBI, CIA and Oswald's family.One character we follow is Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti), the man who filmed the motorcade and captured the assassination on camera. The head of the FBI (Billy Bob Thornton) escorts Zapruder from place to place to make copies of the footage, all the while every news outlet in the world offers him money to purchase it. We see Zapruder struggle with the decision to sell the footage, going so far as requesting that Time magazine edit out the gory parts.Another important character is Robert Oswald (James Badge Dale), Lee Harvey Oswald's brother. I've never seen a movie show Oswald's family before, at least not in this detail, even if it's only for a short amount of time. Their mother Marguerite (Jacki Weaver) is on the verge of being institutionalized, and Weaver plays the part a little too cartoonishly. However, a scene with Robert and Lee in the jail-house before Lee's murder is truly powerful. One of the most heartbreaking scenes occurs when Oswald is being buried, and Robert has to ask the press to help him carry his brother's coffin because nobody else is there to help.Zac Efron, Colin Hanks and Marcia Gay Harden all give great but small performances as doctors at Parkland who have to deal with the CIA and Secret Service barging in. Ron Livingston plays FBI agent James Hosty, who profiled Oswald before the assassination but was ordered to get rid of any evidence that showed that the FBI had investigated him, because it would look very bad for the Bureau.'Parkland' shows only the intense chaotic moments in these couple of days. Each character receives less than ten minutes of screen time, but Landesman seamlessly weaves these heartbreaking moments together and moves the story at a fluid pace while James Newton Howard's score revs up the emotion in every scene. It's an excellent film.