Well, generally, there's really no new details that can come out and be new to me. Yet, when you see the old details presented as they are in the fabulous movie "Parkland," they will all seem new to you again. And, as I would discover with my theater companions that evening, not everybody is totally up on everything happening that afternoon. And, for that reason, "Parkland" also serves as a marvelous historical record.
Indeed, there have been other movies devoted to the JFK shooting. Most notable among them, of course, would be Oliver Stone's "JFK," which, in its own goofy way, made us all think more seriously about the longstanding conspiracy theories that have evolved over the past five decades. But, "Parkland" is not concerned with the number of shots, magic bullets, or a man standing behind a tree with an umbrella. Nope, "Parkland" is about the people who were in Dallas that day. And not the ones you normally think about.
Oh, you'll see glimpses of Jackie Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and Lee Harvey Oswald. All portrayed by actors you've never heard of. But, in "Parkland," they are merely cameo appearances. This movie wants you to meet the other folks that were attached to this fateful days. Often people whose names you would not know.
Robert Oswald, the alleged assassin's brother.
Marguerite Oswald, the alleged assassin's unhinged mother.
The Dallas FBI agents who might have missed a chance to stop the shooting two weeks prior.
The emergency room staff of doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital, who wound up giving trauma care to both the President and his shooter two days later.
Dallas businessman Abraham Zapruder, an amateur photographer who captured it all on film.
Their stories are all intertwined meticulously by writer/director Peter Landesman, a filmmaker I have previously never heard of. Despite the limited resume, his work here is masterful.
After the movie, I realized that my friends knew little of facts that I have previously taken for grant after years of reading up on the assassination.
The battle between the Dallas medical examiner and the Kennedy people over the removal of his body from city limits.
That Jackie Kennedy actually carried around a piece of his skull and brain matter that day. These were the fragments she retrieved from the car trunk hood.
That the President's coffin couldn't fit through the door of Air Force One and had to be manhandled into the plane cabin as if they were moving a bulky sofa.
That Lee Harvey Oswald even had a brother.
That there were no pallbearers available to carry the assassin's coffin. The paparazzi was used to do this deed.
But if those factoids are also new to you, perhaps you need to see "Parkland" as well. The attention to detail is spot-on and the results are on the screen. Magnificent, moving, and, apparently to some, educational.
The work of the actors involved is superlative with the likes of Paul Giamatti, Marcia Gay Harden, Colin Hanks, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver, James Badge Dale, and...gasp...even Zac Efron. Even the latter's participation can't sink the film. It's that good. Tom Hanks is one of the producers and, for me, he makes up for years of hammy acting by bringing us this gem.
Amazingly, "Parkland" is not getting wide distribution and that's sad. It's a movie everybody interested in this country needs to see. A precise documentation of the day America died. Let's face it, John F. Kennedy was probably the last United States President I could probably get behind. Fiscally conservative. Socially progressive.
It's been all downhill ever since. And now America is completing its very last toilet bowl swirl. In the theater, I heard tears throughout "Parkland." Mostly for the loss of a man. But, perhaps, a little bit for the loss of a country.
For me, there were tears of joy. "Parkland" got it all right.
LEN'S RATING: Four stars. My first bestowing of the highest rating this year.
Dinner last night: Louisiana sausage at Game 3 of the NLCS.
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