New images have been released concerning Peter Landesman’s JFK drama Parkland, due for release in September. The film stars Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder, the man who unknowingly captured the clearest and soon-to-be world famous footage of the assasination of John F. Kennedy. Billy Bob Thornton also stars as Forrest Sorrels, head of Dallas’ Secret Service office and the man in charge of finding out what went wrong that day.
Where Parkland differentiates itself from other films about what happened on Nov. 22nd, 1963, is by concentrating on more minor figures in the drama, and taking a look at details that may have been missed in the grand narrative of the epochal event that the shooting later became.
According to the director:
This is a movie about the ground truth from the ground level… what surprised me was the power and poignancy of those who survived that day and the three that followed — the heroism, the instincts and the pathos of those swept up in this tsunami. This is an event that happened to individuals.
The film also stars Zac Efron as a newly-qualified doctor and Marcia Gay Harden as the head nurse in the hospital the president arrives at, neither of them initially understanding the gravity of the situation. Jeremy Strong plays Lee Harvey Oswald, a character whose motivations the film doesn’t seek to justify nor investigate the conspiracies surrounding them, with director Peter Landesman adding:
That’s not what this film is about. No one is putting together any kind of puzzle here. They’re just surviving…but the film will open up a new avenue of debate. And a healthy one.”
With a lot of scandal surrounding the current president, a look at the fate of an historical one is sure to be popular. With such a well-regarded cast, the film might just cast some new light on a story we all know so well.
Parkland is released September 20th.