Parkland

[Griff Murphey]

Another JFK assassination movie. It's really a good film, really sets itself in the day and time. Being from Fort Worth, and an 8th grader at the time, it all came back. The film concentrates on Abraham Zapruder's famous movie, the doctors and nurses at Parkland, and the Secret Service and FBI men concerned.

If the movie points a finger at anyone for "allowing" it to happen, it is FBI agent Hosty, who dismissed a written threat delivered by Lee Harvey Oswald to the Dallas FBI office, in person, threatening to blow it up. As was pointed out, he could have arrested Oswald for threatening the life of a federal officer, two weeks before the assassination.

I found the old time ER-OR techniques very interesting and they reminded me of early 70's scrub-ins I did with oral surgeons. They very convincingly show real heroics to try to save JFK, including the performance of CPR to complete exhaustion by two doctors. The effort to save Lee Harvey by the exact same team was shown as less enthusiastic.

Billy Bob Thornton plays a great role as the head Dallas Secret Service officer, Sherill.

The Secret Service is shown brandishing AR-15s with 20 rd. mags and triangle handguards but they have birdcage flash hiders and forward assists. Probable mocked up replica gun models. Guess they were too cheap to hunt up some early SP-1s with prong hiders.

Another point about the movie is the depiction of the respect with which the Secret Service treated Abraham Zapruder and his property rights to his 8mm film. I think today they would just take it.

One of the things I liked about it was that the palpable rage Texans felt over this was well conveyed. I remember hearing of cars with Texas license plates getting vandalized up east, etc. People here hated Oswald, and regarded it as a huge stain on the honor of Texas, and I think just now are getting over the shame if it all, with new monuments to JFK and an art show, just recently.

Highly recommend the film for those interested in the event or just the ambiance of the era. It answers no questions and turns no new ground but is well crafted and will pull you in. It is really kind of an art film, is under promoted, and will be on the big screen only through next week in one location in my city, the Hulen Movie tavern.