Parkland is a 2013 film directed by Peter Landesman.
It is about the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. The famous and infamous people associated with the Kennedy assassination—John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Lyndon Johnson—are mostly offscreen or The Faceless. Instead the story is told through the POV of various observers: the Parkland Hospital trauma staff, the Secret Servicemen on the presidential detail, the Dallas FBI office, and Lee Harvey Oswald's brother. All of them have their lives turned upside down when the president is murdered in Dallas, Texas.
The All-Star Cast includes Zac Efron, Colin Hanks, Matt Barr, and Marcia Gay Harden (Doctors Carrico, Perry, and Mikkelson and Head Nurse Nelson, respectively); Rory Cochrane (Earl Rose); Jackie Earle Haley (Father Oscar Huber); Ron Livingston and David Harbour (Agents Hosty and Shanklin of the Dallas branch of the FBI); Tom Welling and Billy Bob Thornton (Secret Service Agents Roy Kellerman and Forrest Sorrels); Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder; and James Badge Dale as Lee Harvey Oswald's brother Robert.
It was released on October 4, 2013 in the United States.
Tropes for the Film:
- Artistic License – History: Mostly avoided in what was a highly accurate film. However, in Real Life Hosty actually interrogated Lee Oswald in the Dallas jail on November 22 and this was when he realized that Oswald left the note. In the film this is omitted.
- Asshole Victim: Lee Harvey Oswald, everybody. The Hospital Gurney Scene ends with the Parkland staff wheeling Oswald into Trauma Room Two because they don't want to treat him in Trauma Room One where Kennedy died. When Perry briefly thinks that they might be able to save Oswald, he says "We might get to keep this one," only for someone else to answer "Do you want to?".
- Destroy the Evidence: On the orders of his boss, Agent Hosty burns his file on Lee Harvey Oswald as well as the note Oswald had left for Hosty at the office. In Real Life this incident has been fodder for conspiracy theorists ever since.
- Dies Wide Open: Kennedy's face is never shown but Oswald's is, staring sightlessly upwards from the operating table.
- Disturbed Doves: Pigeons flap upwards at Lee Harvey Oswald's sad funeral.
- Historical Domain Character: Almost all of them, right down to Abraham Zapruder's secretary who was there with him as Zapruder took his famous film.
- Hospital Gurney Scene: Both JFK and Oswald are dramatically wheeled through the hallways of Parkland.
- Invisible President: John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The film never shows the face of the actor playing JFK. LBJ's face is only shown once, when he refuses to leave Dallas without Jackie.
- It's All About Me: Lee and Robert Oswald's mother Marguerite (Jacki Weaver) is shown to be an epic narcissist. When her son Robert meets her at the police station she says "Well, you finally found me!" Throughout the weekend she's preoccupied with how much money she's going to get from the tragedy.
- Lonely Funeral: As in Real Life, the only people to show up for Lee Oswald's funeral are his mom, brother, and wife (and his two baby daughters). Robert Oswald has to get reporters at the scene to help him carry the coffin.
- Magical Defibrillator: Played straight, with the Dallas doctors using a defibrillator on a flatlining Lee Oswald, complete with dramatic "clunk" noise and Oswald's body violently jerking off the gurney. Only averted when Oswald does not revive movie-style.
- Manly Tears: Abraham Zapruder bursts into tears when he finally meets up with his wife after a very eventful day.
- Oh, Crap!: Just about the Oh Crappiest Oh, Crap! movie that ever Oh Crapped. Some standout Oh, Crap! moments include a close-up on Abraham Zapruder's face as he watches the President get murdered, and the horrified reaction in the Dallas FBI office when they realize that not only did they have a file on Oswald, he had visited their office just ten days previously.Zapruder: They killed him!
- The Place: Parkland Hospital, where both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald were taken.
- Pink Mist: Yes it definitely can happen when one is shot by a high-power rifle bullet. Abraham Zapruder and the people who watch the freshly developed Zapruder Film all gasp in horror when John Kennedy's head explodes into Pink Mist.
- Reflective Eyes: The Zapruder Film is first shown reflected in Abraham Zapruder's glasses as he watches in horror, right after the film is developed.
- Stock Footage: Peppered with stock footage of Kennedy's trip to Dallas and the aftermath of the assassination.
