PARKLAND
US, 2013, 97 minutes, Colour.
James Badge Dale, Marcia Gay Harden, Zac Efron, Paul party, Billy Bob Thornton, Ron Livingston, David Harbour, Colin Hanks, Gary Grubbs, Jackie Earle Haley, Jacki Weaver, Paul Sparks, Glenn Morshower, Jeremy Strong, Gil Bellows, Tom Welling, Mark Duplass, Rory Cochrane, Kat Steffens,
Directed by Peter Landesman.
The occasion for the making of this film is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963, an event which stunned the United States. It also stunned the world – a world in the midst of the Cold War and soon after the missile crisis in Cuba.
Another film made at this time, for the anniversary, was Killing Kennedy with Rob Lowe as Kennedy, the film focusing very much on Lee Harvey Oswald.
The action of this film takes place over a couple of days, opening on the morning of 22 November, the businessman Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) planning to film the President’s cavalcade – with the result that he did had 8 mm film of the event itself. The Kennedys stayed in a hotel and flew to Dallas in the morning, started a motorcade and within minutes the President was shot. He was taken to the local hospital, Parkland, where the staff tried to save his life (Marcia Gay Harden as the head nurse, Zac Efron and Colin Hanks as the doctors – ironically soon to try to save Lee Harvey Oswald life after Jack Ruby shot him).
The film spends some time focusing on the President, the surgery, and anointing by a priest (Jackie Earle Haley), legal custody about the body staying in Texas or going back to Washington, the presence of the Secret Service, having to hack out the rows in the plane to transport the body back to Washington, the grief of Jackie Kennedy, the swearing in of Lyndon Johnson.
One of the characters seen on the day is Bob Oswald (James Badge Dale) going to work, shocked at the news, going to the police, interrogated. His mother is also interrogated – a powerful performance from Jacki Weaver, a rather narcissistic mother, contemplating notoriety and money, write-ups about her, and believing that her son was a spy for the American government and deserved to be buried in Arlington.
Some time is focused on Lee Harvey Oswald, but only a mention of his being shot by Jack Ruby.
A lot of time is spent with Zapruder, the Secret Service wanting his film, the difficulties in developing it, Zapruder’s sense of dignity and loyalty to the president. There is also blame in the Secret Service office in Dallas and the burning of files.
Finally, the two funerals, ceremonial in Washington, desolate in Dallas, are intercut.
The film has a very strong cast of character actors. It is straightforward in its interpretation of the assassination rather than the variety of conspiracy theories that continue to emerge.
1. Audience interest in the Kennedy assassination? 50 years after the event? Remembering, reconstructing, interpreting? 21st-century perspective on the 20th century? American politics in the early 1960s?
2. The title, the local Dallas Hospital?
3. The presentation of the staff, as persons, relaxing, at work, availability? The suddenness of the Kennedy assassination and his arrival? Shock? The work of the doctors, the nurses, the details of the surgery, trying to save the President’s life? The presence of the Secret Service, their being ousted? The president dying? The nurse, calling for the priest, the details of the anointing, the prayer, the nurse getting the crucifix and putting it on the president?
4. Audience response to the assassination, older audiences, new audiences, the experience of the assassination? Or its being part of history? The American spirit?
5. The work of the writer-director, journalist background, books, films, reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan?
6. The three days and events in November 1963? Dallas? The opening of the film, Abraham Zapruder, his eagerness, to see the president, at work, the staff, giving them the free day, his camera, standing on the column, filming? Robert Oswald and his work? The president, the night before, the plane, arriving in Dallas? The president and Jackie Kennedy? The role of the Secret Service, preparations? The DCs Service, the local officials?
7. The shooting, its being filmed? Zapruder’s reaction? Sorrels and the Secret Service contacting him? His fright, dismay? Taking possession of the film? The laboratories, the difficulties for developing 8 mm?
8. The blood, Jackie Kennedy, the president and going to the hospital, the surgery? The different personnel? The doctors and nurses, the surgery, Jackie and her reaction? The local authority, quoting state law, demanding to keep the body, the Secret Service defying him? Hurrying to the airport, hacking the seats on the plane, lifting the coffin? Lyndon Johnson, his oath? The dramatic presentation of the situation?
9. The film’s incorporation of actual footage of the president, of Dallas, the aftermath? Walter Cronkite and the other media representatives? The funeral? Footage intercut with re-enactments?
10. The local authorities, failure, James Hosty, the blame, his boss, the effect, the cover-up, the decision to burn the file on Lee Harvey Oswald?
11. The film not focusing initially on Oswald himself? The report of his leaving the repository, the bus, the shooting of the policeman? His arrest, Bob Oswald seeing it on television? Bob Oswald going in, the interrogations? The impact of Marguerite Oswald? What people call “a piece of work�? Her self-focus, seeing Lee as a spy, worthy to be buried in Arlington? Thinking of herself, the media, the money? Bob’s reaction to her? At the funeral? The Reverend and his words? A few people there? The Secret Service, the journalists, being asked to carry the coffin? The workers coming in to bury the body? A desolate scene?
12. The interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald, his responses, Jack Ruby shooting him – and their being no footage of the shooting? Just the report? Oswald taken to hospital, the same staff, the procedures, his death?
13. The footage of the Kennedy funeral in Washington, intercut with Lee Harvey Oswald’s funeral?
14. The portrait of Jackie Kennedy, young, the children, her grief, the effect?
15. The effect of the assassination on Americans, the Cold War, fears?
16. The final information about the variety of characters seen in the film? Different careers, age, the dates of their deaths?
