MovieChat Forums > Parkland (2013) Discussion > Lack of Dramatic Focus

Lack of Dramatic Focus

posted 11 years ago by DanaShelbyChancey
4 replies | jump to latest

The movie was ok, nothing really wrong with how it was made, and the cast was great.

However, aside from the repetitive jaw-dropping, there were no expressions of actual feelings. We didn't see much of anything of who these people really were.

Sure they were upset, but I wanted more. The movie is really supposed to be about these people, not JFK or Jackie.

Not even whether you think Oswald was the lone gunman or a patsy. Just about how these people in this hospital on that day woke up in a world very different from the one they went to sleep in.

[–] glaeken777 10 years ago

Agreed. The best parts of the movie focused on Robert Oswald and the incredible amount of confusion and guilt he had to bear.

I would've liked to have seen more of that -- minus the inexplicably overwrought interpretation of Marguerite Oswald. In real life, she was an outspoken lady who sincerely believed her son was innocent, but PARKLAND turns her into Norman Bates's mother.

The Zapruder scenes were well acted by Paul Giamatti, Hollywood's go-to actor for tormented, morose figures... but as a whole, they were pretty inconsequential compared to the rest of the film.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

there were no expressions of actual feelings. We didn't see much of anything of who these people really were.

WHAT? Were we watching the same movie?!

There was tons of emotion in the movie. Just because it wasn't typical Hollywood garbage (and it was enough of that anyway) where there is over the top acting and absurd drama, doesn't mean that there "were no expressions of actual feelings."

Our "reality" TV culture has no idea what or "actual" feelings are anymore.

There are two issues:

(1) In the 60s people were still fairly stoic, the stuffed their emotions and also thought it was their patriotic duty to try to keep things together. Keep in mind, at this point people thought this may be the beginning of a war with Russia or some other invading force. They were trying to steel themselves for what may be coming.

(2) These people were numb, they didn't know what to think. They were afraid, and sorrowful and angry and all sorts of things together and they didn't know how to feel so they shut down. This is the first day of the shooting, they haven't had time to process. They are shell-shocked / PTSD.

If you have the fortune of having parents who lived during this time and asked them how they felt they will describe feelings very much like the people in the film. My parents were 22 when Kennedy was shot, they were about to get married and they said that they were numb, that the shooting came as such a shock, and such a blow to their sense of security, as a person and as a citizen of the US, that they didn't know how to feel until it had a chance to sink in.

What hump? 

[–] DanaShelbyChancey 9 years ago

I am only speaking of a movie, and I still think Parkland didn't capture what I wanted to see, being set in the hospital JFK went to on that day.

I myself was 8 years old on the day of the assassination, and my parents are dead now. I remember it well.

I was in school that day, we got word in the afternoon sometime, after lunch. When I walked home, everyone along the route (Philadelphia) was on their porches, on the sidewalk, on the stoop or hanging out the window, everyone was talking about it and were shocked.

[–] Hythlodaeus 9 years ago

Well, there are plenty of other movies that go through the drama of focusing on JFK, right?

I liked this one because it focused on other people who you wouldn't have thought of.

What hump? 