Parkland, based on the book by Vincent Bugliosi - Nine out of 10

Parkland, based on the book by Vincent Bugliosi

Nine out of 10

Unfortunately, this film has been under the radar and the critics that have looked at it are divided, with Variety dismissing it and rating it with a paltry 30 out of 100, while The Hollywood Reporter may be closer to the mark, in the sense that this viewer shares the views of the latter, rather than the former and considers this motion picture as remarkable, with excellent performances, delivered by a stellar cast and revealing aspects of the aftermath of the assassination of the American president that were unknown…surely, many, if not most of those watching this movie would be surprised to find some intriguing aspects.

Evidently, much of what happened is well known – although there are major productions that, instead of underlining the truth, engage in conspiracy theories that, engaging though they are, distort the reality and promote other culprits instead of the man who has acted alone, Lee Harvey Oswald…the CIA, working in cahoots with Cuban exiles, the Mafia and other outfits – but this feature is special in that it looks at the experience of individuals that are hidden in the background, trying to save John Fitzgerald Kennedy, once he is shot, have filmed the assassination, have been involved in the investigation of the weird, surely deranged Oswald…

It seems extraordinary that there was so much confusion in the Parkland hospital where the shot president is taken – admittedly, we have the benefit of hindsight and then things have improved so much in ER and generally in hospitals in the meantime – and they do not even know the blood type of the victim, whereas surely today, every unit on the way has advanced knowledge and furthermore, they must have the means to help a potentially wounded or sick commander in chief in the limousines or Air force One in this age.

However, in 1963, the doctors were not ready to receive the patient – not in the sense they would be today – and the operators received a code in communication, but they were not aware it was the wounded Kennedy on the way to their Parkland hospital, where they tried all that they could, in fact doctor Charles Carrico aka Zac Efron tries and pushes the chest of the man without a pulse or any signs of life, well after the others are insisting that there is no use and he should stop – indeed, although his efforts seems and were in vain, his insistence looked like the proper thing to do, for after all, there have been so many cases of patients that have been ‘resurrected’ after many minutes of resuscitation, that is surely makes sense to keep applying all there is to the commander in chief…

Unless of course we would be talking of Donald trump…in which case, seeing as he is ‘the best, smartest, and most wonderful’ he should be able to defeat any disease, enemy…superman that he is (in his sick, disgusting mind)

The wondrous Paul Giamatti plays Abraham Zapruder, the man who happened to be waiting for the motorcade, just as it approached the fatidic portion of the itinerary and used his camera to record what would be the only document of the assassination of one of the greatest presidents America has had – for all his flaws, revealed later, the multitude of affairs, the fact that he was a philanderer and had to use drugs to counterbalance the afflictions he suffered from, this heroic man was the real thing, not a conflated buffoon who whines and boasts on twitter about invented achievements…if we put Kennedy in contrast with the orange puppet in charge today, it makes the difference even more ludicrous.

Ron Livingston has the role of James Hosty, the FBI agent who would have to bear on his conscience the fact that he had been looking at the case of Lee Oswald , before he took the gun and pointed it at the leader of the free world, had tried to talk to him a few times, for the character was on the radar, he had been to Russia, married a Russian woman, but on the other hand, he seems to be useless, his threats pointless, although the head of the unit would accuse Hosty and say that they could have and should have arrested Oswald, who had threatened to blow up the bureau, because an agent had tried to talk with his wife and he disagreed…these threats were common, they had too few agents to deal with every idiot who makes a claim.

Billy Bob Thornton is as usual impressive in the role of Forrest Sorrels, the Secret Service man who was in charge of protecting ‘his man’ and then he is the one who takes some charge of the investigation – there would be some disputes though, the local police wants to look at it as a murder, the coroner arrives at one stage and says he cannot allow the corpse to leave the premises without an autopsy – Texas laws, but this viewer would say that it votes with Trump alas – and there is a confrontation over the subject and in the end, the body of the late president is allowed to travel to the plane, where they have to use tools to take out chairs, because the personnel rightly felt they must not allow this once glorious man to go out with the luggage…but there was no place for a coffin inside, without throwing away chairs…

There were other moments of confusion and absurdity…Jackie was considered an outsider by some personnel for indeed, she was  no longer the first lady and she was related to nobody in an official capacity anymore…although they changed that and the former vice president, now the Commander in chief stated that she has to travel with him.

The absurdity is provided by what happened, evidently, but also by some characters that are taken to the center of the stage by this film, such as the mother of the assassin, Marguerite Oswald aka the stupendous Jackie Weaver, who maintained that her son was working for the American government, he has always been an agent and then she wanted all sorts of outré things, money, protection and kept acting in a provocative, crazy way…asking for her son, once he is shot dead in his turn, to be buried with…JFK, at Arlington!