Parkland

“Did you know that your son has just killed the most important man in the entire world?” From “Parkland”.

Well, well, aren’t we important!

What is this crap? Even Aaron Sorkin used to do it… a lot. All of the major characters in West Wing at one moment or another would get into this coy, contrived schtick.

“I have to take a crap.”
“Okay, but just so you know, the most powerful man in the world is now wiping his ass in that same room.”

Are they afraid that the audience doesn’t understand that the guy they just shot in the limousine is the President of the United States (cue “Hail to the Chief”)?

Like “Book Thief”, “Parkland” looks like it is largely a projection of how we feel about ourselves feeling about the JFK assassination, and almost not at all about anything that really happened on that day.

Okay– fair enough– I’ll wait until I’ve seen it before I comment any further on the film. I just honestly expect the worst, judging from the previews. There are clips of a young doctor being told that the person being brought to the emergency entrance is only the gosh darn holy cow president of the United States! Whoosh! All the drama just got sucked out of that moment because the audience has been clobbered with SIGNIFICANCE.

I can’t wait, though, for “Parkland” to show us Dan Rather viewing the Zapruder film and then telling CBS audiences and the entire world that the film shows Kennedy’s head jerking forward and to the left, exactly as it should have after being hit from above and behind by the lone assasin, Lee Harvey Oswald!