d.rust 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.

Kirsty2515 I love history and i particularly enjoy watching films, documentaries, TV series about the assassination of JFK. Each time i watch a depiction of the assassination there is always a different take on what happened or a new conspiracy that gets put out there. This film is completely different to anything else i have seen. It doesn't focus on any one person, any conspiracy theories or even the assassination itself. It focuses entirely on the facts and effects that this tragic event had on the people that witnessed it or had some direct involvement with the aftermath of it. It was refreshing to see a JFK film focus on something more than just the same conspiracy theories and general information that gets put out over and over again.The use of real archived footage from news outlets, TV stations and home videos mixed in with the new film was excellent. It really added to authenticity of the movie. Some of the scenes that come when JFK arrives at Parkland are quite disturbing and hard hitting. Particularly when Zac Efron is administering CPR to the president or when Jackie Kennedy hands part of the presidents skull over to the nurse. But on the other had some scenes are left to the cast to convey for example the Zapruder film does not get shown in full, you are left to see the shock and horror on the characters faces, which is a strange way is just as disturbing as watching it. All of the actors do an amazing job in portraying the trauma, shock and sadness that their real life counterparts would have experienced when this tragedy happened.The way that Peter Landesman has written and directed this film is fantastic. He uses small but obvious details to convey the pain and the grieving of all those involved and those. There is no taking sides. He is not trying to prove Oswalds guilt, or the failings of law enforcement or any other agenda. He is simply showing how people react and what raw human emotion looks like.This is a great factual film. Great cast, great script, great directing. Well worth watching.

Gregg Wager I fear films like this, because I know if anyone ever makes one well enough, I might end up hating American cinema forever. Thankfully, I found this film to be executed poorly enough that I can breathe a sigh of relief."Parkland" is a super-somber, ponderous marathon of long silences between sparse dialog delivered with exaggerated whisper. Abrupt and remarkably volatile tantrums also occur, but can all but be counted with the fingers on one hand.In such ultra-slow motion, out comes a one-dimensional bore of a narrative that never pleads with conspiracy theorists to give up their presumably errant beliefs, but pretends no controversy ever existed in the first place. Perhaps the dubious design is to wear the theorists down until saliva drips from their gaping mouths.Otherwise superb actors (Thornton, Giamatti, Harden, and Efron) are lost among a generally weak cast. James Newton Howard adds a snail's-pace music soundtrack resembling a weeping choir that makes Brian Eno's "Music For Airports" sound like a frenetic, dizzying étude.But that's not the point. Those of us who have actually read Vincent Bugliosi's 1700-page tome know that the main purpose here is to debunk conspiracy theories (it is titled "Reclaiming History," after all). Unfortunately, even admiring Bugliosi's skills as a prosecutor and zealous advocate do not overcome the painful reality that he makes a horrifically misguided claim to also being an historian. He is no such thing.Those who know the conspiracy-friendly film "Kill the Messenger" also might be shocked to learn that its same screenwriter and producer also wrote and directed "Parkland." Other familiar names, including actors Tom Hanks and Bill Paxton, flesh out a rather lengthy list of producers.We have all seen the Zapruder film, which includes depiction of a large piece of JFK's scalp being torn almost completely off (footage even included in this film), so why during the opening do we see a completely intact head as JFK's body is being rolled into Parkland Memorial Hospital on a stretcher? Why so much effort to portray Agent Hosty's acts as merely a cover-up of ineptitude without even the hint of the controversy that raged in the newspapers that Oswald was supposed to have been an FBI informant and even kept Hosty's name in his address book? The only hint that Oswald might have been a trained agent provocateur (explaining his defection to the USSR and public displays of over-the-top Marxism) come from his mother, who is portrayed as a sociopath, with grief uncharacteristically emerging only at the end during her son's funeral. If only Robert Oswald had a crystal ball when scolding his brother for being such a bad father—in real life, the older daughter, Rachel Oswald Porter, graduated as the valedictorian of the University of Texas.Follow this moping maze of darkness if you must, but just for fun, read Mark Antony's famous soliloquy when it's all finished. This is not the last word.

crdnlsyn13 I have been studying, watching, speaking about, and all around fascinated with this event that happened 8 years before I was even born. I've seen every adaptation and film about this event, and this is the first one that actually captured the 'human' element of the story. For decades we've grown so jaded by the coverage, and documentaries and reports that go on year after year on the anniversary, that we've disassociated the 'human' element of what happened.We've never been given a real glimpse into the emotions of the doctors, and nurses in the room that day. We've NEVER truly felt Jackie's pain and anguish in that room, on that day, until now. I cried, after years and years of watching, and reading, and talking about all this... during the emergency room scene, I cried. The 'human' element of all of it, FINALLY hit home.Great film, great story, told from a great angle. Conspiracy theorists, and detractors should set aside their agendas for a moment, and just feel what the Doctor's and Nurses, and all the others felt during those moments. Truly moving, no matter what you believe happened that day.