Parkland (film)

Parkland is a 2013 American historical drama film that recounts the chaotic events that occurred following John F. Kennedy's assassination.^[5] The film is written and directed by Peter Landesman, produced by Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and Bill Paxton with Exclusive Media’s Nigel and Matt Sinclair.^[6] The film is based on Vincent Bugliosi's 2008 book Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Plot

Parkland weaves together the perspectives of a handful of ordinary individuals suddenly thrust into extraordinary circumstances: the young doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital; Dallas’s chief of the Secret Service; an unwitting cameraman who captured what became the most famous home movie in history; the FBI agents who were visited by Lee Harvey Oswald before the shooting; the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald, left to deal with his shattered family; and JFK’s security team, witnesses to both the president’s death and Vice President Lyndon Johnson’s rise to power.

Cast

• James Badge Dale as Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Jr.^[7]
• Zac Efron as Dr. Charles James "Jim" Carrico^[8]
• Jackie Earle Haley as Father Oscar Huber^[9]
• Colin Hanks as Dr. Malcolm O. Perry^[9]
• David Harbour as James Gordon Shanklin^[9]
• Marcia Gay Harden as Head Nurse Doris Nelson ^[10]
• Ron Livingston as James P. Hosty^[9]
• Jeremy Strong as Lee Harvey Oswald^[11]
• Billy Bob Thornton as Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels^[8]
• Jacki Weaver as Marguerite Oswald^[8]
• Tom Welling as Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman^[12]
• Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder^[8]
• Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Lillian Zapruder
• Bitsie Tulloch as Marilyn Sitzman^[13]
• Brett Stimely as President John F. Kennedy^[14]
• Kat Steffens as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy
• Gil Bellows as David Powers
• Sean McGraw as Lyndon B. Johnson
• Rory Cochrane as Earl Rose
• Mark Duplass as Kenneth O'Donnell
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore as Reverend Saunders
• Matt Barr as Paul Mikkelson
• Jonathan Breck as Winston Lawson
• Gary Grubbs as Dr. Kemp Clark
• Bryan Batt as Malcolm Kilduff
• Glenn Morshower as Mike Howard
• Armando Gutierrez as Officer Glen McBride
• Austin Nichols as Secret Service Agent Emory Roberts

Production

Production began in January 2013 in Austin, Texas. Writer/director Peter Landesman has stated that the film does not explore the various conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination.^[6][15][16]

Release

Parkland premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival and was also screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.^[17][18] Coinciding with the assassination's 50th anniversary year, the film was released theatrically in the United States on October 4, 2013.^[6][19][20]

Reception

Parkland received mixed reviews, currently holding a 49% rating based on 119 reviews on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus states: "Although its decision to look at John F. Kennedy's assassination through uncommon perspectives is refreshing, Parkland never achieves the narrative cohesion its subject deserves."^[21] On Metacritic, the film has a 51/100 rating, signifying "mixed or average reviews".^[22]

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 5, 2013.

Historical accuracy

Historian Peter Ling awarded Parkland four stars for enjoyment and three stars for historical accuracy. Reviewing the film, he praised its attempt to "capture the desperate efforts made to save Kennedy in the operating room". He told historyextra: "It shows that the head nurse, Doris Nelson (played by Marcia Gay Harden), had to take a piece of JFK's skull and some brain tissue from Mrs Kennedy [Jackie picked up a piece of her husband's skull at the scene], and that junior doctor, Jim Carrico (played by Zac Efron), had to be told to stop the frenetic but fruitless cardiac massage at one o'clock, when the team declared JFK dead."^[23]

However, he noted the "suspect influences" on Abraham Zapruder's decision to hand over his tapes to Life magazine. He said: "Once copies have been given to the Secret Service and the FBI, Zapruder has to choose from many media outlets who want to buy the film. He chooses Life because he says he respects the publication, but the movie seems to hint that any suppression of the film’s contents is in line with Zapruder’s wishes, and not because of suspect influences at Life itself, whose managing director had CIA connections."^[24]

Journalist Hugh Aynesworth, who witnessed the assassination of JFK and was a consultant for Parkland, told historyextra: "I worked with the producers on character development. They did a tremendous job describing the mother and brother of Oswald. I worked with the Oswalds in the beginning [Aynesworth secured the first-ever print interview with Marina Oswald, the wife of Lee Harvey]. He added "It’s very accurate, but that’s one of the problems. People want more; they want a conspiracy theory...There were so many people impacted, and the film shows the bravery of some of the people at the hospital and the bravery of Jackie."^[25]

See also

• Concussion (2015, directed by Peter Landesman)

References

External links

• Official website
• Parkland at the Internet Movie Database
• Parkland at Box Office Mojo
• Parkland at Rotten Tomatoes
• Parkland at Metacritic
• Parkland on Facebook
• Parkland on Twitter
• Article | "The Pink Suit" | Portland Magazine