By Forris Day Jr.
It’s a star studded cast in this interesting movie “Parkland”. Parkland is the hospital that John F. Kennedy was brought to after being shot in the head by Lee Harvey Oswald. The movie is shot through the eyes of the hospital staff of Parkland for the most part. It is about regular people who get thrown into the mayhem that ensued after JFK is murdered. Regular doctors, nurses and people on the street become a part of one of the darkest days in U.S. history. It is a movie about “the behind the scenes” people.
Not one of the best movies I have seen, but certainly worth a watch, particularly for anyone who is fascinated with President Kennedy and the events surrounding his assassination. It is a fictional story heavily based on reality. It plods along at a decent pace perhaps even a bit slowly. It begins by jumping into the lives of the everyday people that will forever be part of history such as Abraham Zapruder, a regular guy, who unwittingly shot 26.6 seconds worth of video just before, including and just after Kennedy’s assassination. People are still analyzed his footage to this day.
Mainly the movie focuses on what happened after the shots rang out, from the harried drive to the hospital, to frantically working on President Kennedy to save his life and finally to the arguments regarding releasing his body so it can be taken back to Washington DC. It is shot very nicely (thank you for not going all “hand held” on us ). It is a very thought provoking movie in the fact that it does deal with the people who had to be hands-on and take care of business after such a tragic event. Most of us just view things as they happen. These folks had to be a part of it and their decisions affected an entire country.
The all star ensamble cast includes Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Billy Bob Thorton and many others. Bottom line, a decent movie but not one I would watch twice.
Rating – 5/10 – “Snoozland”
