321: Parkland + JFK Director's Cut

[00:00:01] Hello everybody, welcome back to the Film Buds podcast. This is episode number 292 and my name is Henry. This week I'm gonna be doing a bit of a JFK special. I'm going to be starting off with Parkland from 2013 starring Zac Efron,

[00:00:30] Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton and many others. And then a review of Oliver Stone's JFK from 1991 including specific points about the Directors Cut version of that film. So should be a great time. Thanks as always for joining

[00:00:47] us. Please hit that subscribe button now, give us a rating, give us a review and thanks to all those who have recently. First thing if you have not already noticed or if you're not already a subscriber we are doing a daily series

[00:01:01] now so the Film Buds, at least for the time being, is a daily show where we'll be doing our Monday episodes like this as normal and then Tuesdays through Saturdays we'll be doing a variety of movies, kind of short mini reviews. So

[00:01:15] check those out if you have not yet and thank you to everybody who has been listening. They seem to be a big hit so I guess we'll keep doing them whenever possible. And we also have a bonus show page at

[00:01:28] filmbuds.bandcamp.com. We have over 70 bonus shows I think there right now so please check those out if you haven't yet. They cover franchises, trilogies, actors, directors, all that sort of stuff. And then also for the show we will be

[00:01:43] doing some pics of the week as normal so just some other stuff I've been watching as well. Besides that not a whole lot else. The Oscars were this past Sunday so when Elle comes back to the regular show I'm sure

[00:01:57] we'll talk more about that but Oppenheimer did win which I was very happy about and for the most part I didn't have a lot of huge upsets. I don't care about the Oscars all that much anyways. I've been going through all of

[00:02:09] the Best Picture nominees this past week and I will be doing those in the daily shows as well as probably next week's episode with Elle. But we will be covering all of them now in one way or the other. Alright well not much else to say let's

[00:02:25] go and talk Parkland. And we do have a clip so take a listen. Mr. Zapruder, I'm Forrest Sarles, special agent in charge of the Dallas District of the United States Secret Service. Sir did you tell Harry you took film of the motorcade

[00:02:41] today? Yes. So you did sir you did film the motorcade? I said yes. And where were you standing at the time? Okay so as I said Parkland came out in 2013 written and directed by Peter Landesman. Stars Zac Efron, Tom Welling, Billy Bob Thornton,

[00:03:03] Paul Giamatti, Marcia Gay Harden, Jackie Weaver, James Badgedale and many others. And the synopsis is a recounting of the chaotic events that occurred at Dallas's Parkland Memorial Hospital on the day President John F Kennedy was assassinated. This one made 1.6 million against the budget of 10 so not really

[00:03:26] big hit financially. I think reviews were decent but not amazing and I actually read the book that this is based on before I saw the movie. I had never heard of the book before and so that really piqued my interest and so I burned

[00:03:39] through the book and I highly suggest that you check it out because it is pretty much a minute-by-minute retelling of the JFK assassination before and after and it was a very very well done, well researched book. And spoiler it is a lot

[00:03:54] better than the movie. When it comes to JFK like many I'm intrigued by what happened, the events, what led up to it, what happened after because there's so many unknowns there and mysteries and all of that

[00:04:07] conspiracies and we'll get to that with JFK. So I pretty much will always seek out movies and TV shows relating to this story and this era because mid 20th century is really my favorite time in history to study and learn about. And

[00:04:23] like I teased a little bit earlier the movie I want to like it more. I think that there is some validity to it and a purpose to it in terms of telling this story for a wide audience but I think the execution is not really there. It

[00:04:39] feels very stilted and sluggish because while yes there is a purpose to the story and why that's important, the direction and how they tell the story within the movie it feels like there is not much of a purpose. You're like alright so why are

[00:04:54] we learning about this? You know we could easily just go to Wikipedia and learn about all this much quicker than watching this movie because for the most part the movie seems to focus more so on like just facts. Alright this happened at

[00:05:08] 1037 then on this day it happened at this point in that point and there's not a whole lot of discussions there. There's not a lot of deep commentary or ideas and so it does feel kind of shallow and a little lackluster in terms

[00:05:23] of that momentum driving the story forward. And it is interesting in terms of the hospital, Parkland Hospital, that is where both JFK died as well as Lee Harvey Oswald who was you know the killer. And so I think it's interesting that both the

[00:05:41] victim and the killer were pronounced dead at the same place because then the doctors there had to be involved with both parties. And also in terms of the JFK part which is really teased a lot in the trailer, the doctors played by Zac

[00:05:58] Efron, at least the lead is, where he's just a normal kind of young doctor and then suddenly JFK is thrown into the operating room and he's like alright you got to operate on this guy, try and save his life, he's the president. And it's

[00:06:12] this complete chaos shaken reality moment which I like, I think that's effective and you can only imagine what that would feel like if that was you in that operating room. So all that works but for the most part afterwards it's not super

[00:06:26] interesting. I think the idea of this Abraham Zapruder which is the guy who just by chance shot the video of JFK being shot, that is a very iconic point in history because if that had happened now there would have been probably

[00:06:42] thousands of recordings of that same moment. Like because of cell phones, television cameras, this that and the other. Whereas in this he was the only guy to capture that moment or at least the only known guy which is pretty crazy

[00:06:56] to think about. That is just something that would have only happened in that time not now. And his realizations of oh my god like I just saw the president get shot, I caught it on camera and then the FBI coming in

[00:07:10] saying we need that video. That is the only thing that's giving us any evidence of what happened. And so I think all those discussions are interesting and then the Oswald family is probably the most interesting part of the film in terms of

[00:07:26] the brother played by James Badgedale who I really like him a lot where the brother of Lee Harvey is saying yeah like I have no doubt that he killed him. Like it sounds exactly like my brother for the most part and so I think that's

[00:07:41] interesting in terms of the historical aspect. The only performance I don't like is Jackie Weaver as the mother of Oswald. I think she's a little goofy sort of, I don't know if it's a parody but it feels

[00:07:55] much too over-the-top to really work and so I don't like her in it. I generally do but not in this. Paul Giamatti, love him in everything, he's great. Billy Bob Thornton, Ron Livingston is good so it's got a good

[00:08:10] cast, it's got a good setup but that momentum, that drive, that real kind of punch is not there and the commentary isn't there so it's not as sharp or as biting or as intriguing as I think it is or as I think the book is.

[00:08:26] So it's a serviceable movie. If you are interested in the JFK assassination or just in JFK himself I would give it a look. You could do a lot worse, I think there are much worse ones out there. I think as we'll get to the Oliver Stone

[00:08:40] movie and then probably the best one of all of those movies and those shows is Jackie with Natalie Portman. I think that's probably my favorite of the world of JFK and the assassination so definitely give that one a look if you've not seen it yet because it's amazing.

[00:08:58] Other than that, it's directed alright. There's a lot of handheld, a little too much of shoving cameras up in people's faces and it doesn't totally work so I think the direction is a little lame. Scores alright by James

[00:09:13] Newton Howard and yeah I think that's about it. I've seen it two times now but I think if I ever wanted to go back to this story I would just read the book. It

[00:09:23] is one of those. I think it's probably one of the best examples of a book really working as a book and not working as a movie or at least in the way that they decided to tell it. So that is a light three out of five.

[00:09:40] Alright let's get to JFK from 1991 and we do have a clip as well so take a

[00:10:19] Alright so as I said JFK came out in 1991. The director's cut came out maybe 15 years later. It's directed by Oliver Stone, stars basically everyone in Hollywood. It's pretty insane. Stars Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Sally Kirkland, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Rooker, Sissy

[00:10:50] Spacek and many many many others. John Candy. It's completely packed and the synopsis is New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story. So I only saw this one for the first time just recently. I've been meaning to

[00:11:09] get around to it for a long time just never did so it was a first-time watch First thing Oliver Stone, don't love him totally. I think he really peaked in the early part of his career like Platoon, Natural Born Killers, this and a few

[00:11:25] others. I think he's done some interesting work over the last two decades or so but I think he's lost a little bit and maybe gotten a little too involved in politics and that sort of thing because I think he was amazing in

[00:11:37] the first part of his career and I don't necessarily mind you getting political with art that's just natural it's a belief so it's gonna happen and I don't mind if it's a viewpoint that I don't agree with like that's what makes art

[00:11:53] interesting is even if it's not something you totally agree with or see the rationality of having a different point of view can help build a perspective and or what's right and wrong and so when Oliver Stone makes very

[00:12:08] political things that's okay I'm not against that and in some ways that's what makes him interesting and stand out and this movie putting all that aside well before getting into how I feel about the movie actually sorry whether you consider this movie to be complete truth or complete

[00:12:27] hooey to me there is no denying that this movie is pretty darn entertaining like it was easily one of the most entertaining political thrillers that I've ever seen and I know it got a lot of award attention big box office and was

[00:12:43] a huge success when it came out and I cannot believe how engaged I was in this movie and I'm not here to say what I think happened or didn't happen or discredit something and so I'm not gonna say if what happened in this movie

[00:12:57] happened or not is what it is but no matter what it was so well put together so entertaining so involving that I was basically in it from beginning to end for those three hours it does not feel like a three-hour movie to me

[00:13:13] and I know it's one of the big things that gets praised a lot that editing is insane there are so many stories going on so many characters so many plots sub plots narrations montages different styles of cinematography going from

[00:13:28] black and white to color very kinetic camera movements injections of interviews and TV clips all that stuff it's crazy how this did not turn into a complete disaster like you easily could have this movie be a total mess you can't

[00:13:46] follow anything but it was the exact opposite like I don't know how they did that it is amazing it's one of the most well edited movies I've seen in ages and it looks amazing to cinematography as well so in that respect it is unparalleled

[00:14:00] probably his most well edited movie of his whole career and I like the idea in terms of the conspiracy of like multiple shooters and this and that I don't mind if you want to try and tackle that that's okay if you

[00:14:16] have some weight behind it but I think what makes this movie work and me not really try to pick apart the pieces and just see it more as a political thriller a neo-noir political thriller is that it's mainly driving at the quote-unquote

[00:14:31] official account by the government of what happened it's not saying the worldwide view it's more so about Kevin Costner's character saying all right I don't like the holes in this story that was presented to me and that is being

[00:14:47] distributed to the world I don't like that I'm gonna try and figure it out so I think that is a good way to do it because then it could just be seen purely as a conspiracy thriller which in some ways it is but there's a little bit

[00:15:00] more of a grounding to it and that's why it works really well for me and maybe why it's still considered to be a great movie by many at least so at this point it is probably my favorite Oliver Stone movie. Platoon

[00:15:14] might be close to it but definitely one of the better JFK movies regardless of fact of what's true and what's not definitely one of the best that I've seen and now talking some about the director's

[00:15:28] cut which is the version I watched and because I had to read later about what was put in and taken out for the different versions the big thing for me that I see why it's criticized for being injected in there is there's a scene

[00:15:44] where he goes like or sequences where he goes on TV and there are these very Kevin Costner that is and he is speaking with all these very goofy television reporters and people like that and it feels where it's trying to

[00:15:58] ground it in a reality for the most part those make it feel more like a silly satire than abiding commentary and so that is a big big chunk that I don't like and I think it would have been better if they had taken that out

[00:16:12] then there's a scene where these cops try and set up Kevin Costner's character at an airport by like soliciting sex and it feels kind of homophobic it doesn't really need to be there it doesn't add anything to the story or how I view him

[00:16:29] or I think other people view him within the context of the story it feels very overdone and over-the-top and so I think despite me typically loving directors cuts I like a longer movie I like more in there even if it's not always perfect I

[00:16:43] like that I think in this case that theatrical cut is better because these additions don't work and they don't help and I know that Oliver Stone apparently has said that he wants this to be the definitive version which I

[00:16:59] think is a mistake because it sort of presents things in a worse light or tries to go too far into certain situations where you're like alright this is goofy this isn't working for me what kind of grounding basis do you have

[00:17:11] so the theatrical cut in terms of what I'm have to gather in my own brain and taking things out and all that the theatrical cut is amazing the director's cut still a very good movie but there were those points where I was

[00:17:25] thinking and not really working but small detail in the big scheme of things still great movie and it's worth watching no matter what take you have on what happened or didn't happen it's really worth watching just as a movie you know

[00:17:42] this could be completely fictional maybe it is but no matter what it's a very very well put together movie and I wish there was more like it out there these days other than that few quick things John

[00:17:57] Williams's score is excellent Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald is great I didn't realize that he was in this movie Joe Pesci is another great character actor in here like it's stacked I cannot believe like every

[00:18:10] scene some new big popular actor was popping up I was like dang this is nuts so I would highly recommend it and yeah that is a 5 out of 5 and also the director's cut would be probably four and a half maybe four but theatrical cut

[00:18:30] five out of five for sure all right well with the reviews done can end off with pics of the week got a few things here so rewatched with a friend of mine insomnia from 2002 the Christopher Nolan thriller which was

[00:18:48] one of his first movies right before he did Batman Begins I'm pretty sure stars Al Pacino and it is a remake of a European film I've seen it probably three times at this point and I think when I first saw

[00:19:03] it I liked it more than I do now and maybe it didn't help that I was watching with a friend who was kind of pointing things out that I wasn't really noticing it is a bit goofy I think the script and the direction and editing is a little

[00:19:15] clunky I appreciate Nolan who I love I love Nolan I appreciate him for trying something it feels a little David Fincher II and style and tone and story which is alright but I think it is probably my least favorite Nolan movie

[00:19:29] to date and while Al Pacino is great Robin Williams is great the rest of the movie the execution not really there doesn't really hold up there's a lot of weird character moments weird writing moments and even direction moments some

[00:19:43] work some don't but overall it did get a little unintentionally goofy at points so still like it just not an amazing movie and then I rewatched side effects the Steven Soderbergh thriller with Rooney Mara Jude Law Shane Tatum Catherine

[00:20:04] Zeta-Jones and I've seen it many many times at this point I think it is very underrated it's really well written written by the guy who did Contagion Scott Z Burns very well researched and is a very interesting take on the quote

[00:20:20] unquote side effects of medications how things can be warped who can be blamed and I don't want to give away any big spoilers even though it's like 10 years old there are some big twists that I don't want to get into too much just in

[00:20:32] case you are unfamiliar with it but very well directed looks amazing very good score a lot of interesting ideas Rooney Mara I love she's amazing Jude Law can't beat him and the whole cast is excellent and there's a lot of good

[00:20:46] twists and turns at the end where one person is getting the ups on another one and then back and forth and it's very well constructed and it makes sense to me at least totally despite all the moving pieces so definitely do check

[00:21:00] that out if you like Soderbergh if you like crime mystery thriller that sort of thing it's definitely one of my favorites and also random fact I do have a bit of a nostalgic love for this movie because it came out when I was in

[00:21:17] college and I didn't have a car and I was desperate to go see movies because I was bored and so I took a few buses and actually crossed the highway to get over

[00:21:28] to this movie theater and so I went on quite a journey to see this for the first time and so I'll always kind of remember that as it's probably the first one I saw in college that obviously left a memorable mark because

[00:21:43] of that quest to try and get to that theater to see anything really so and thankfully it was a good movie and then lastly I rewatched Saving Mr. Banks the Disney film with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson and I'll just go and say it I

[00:22:01] think this movie is one of the most underrated films I've seen in a long long time or that has come out in quite some time it is so affecting and so touching it is beautifully directed and edited and written Tom Hanks of course always

[00:22:18] great Emma Thompson always great she is amazing in this movie and there's such a sort of childlike feel to her and performance to her because it is sorry if you don't know it is about the creator of Mary Poppins working with Disney Walt

[00:22:34] Disney to get the movie made because she's very hesitant because it's largely about her father and she wants her father to be presented in the right way and it has all these continuous flashbacks to her childhood which is

[00:22:47] very very grim and it's got a perfect tone in terms of being able to get into very sad heavy drama to being funny and musical it's perfectly balanced in my opinion so charming it's funny it's really a bit of a tearjerker like Colin

[00:23:05] Farrell who plays this very troubled father of hers when she's a kid how he presents and how they present it overall but his performance which is largely about alcoholism problems with alcoholism and overall depression loneliness life struggles where he can't get ahead and he's his own worst enemy

[00:23:25] it is perfect like sure you can call it melodramatic or over-the-top but I think how he communicates those things is spot-on and it's so heartbreaking in a lot of ways because there's some good soul there but he's always getting in his

[00:23:40] own way and it gets in the way of his family and all that so I love him in this movie it's probably my favorite part and I think it's where I really started to love Colin Farrell as an actor he is amazing

[00:23:52] Great Score a very interesting story in terms of creating entertainment and art and working with these different parties and all that so it's a very very good movie I wish more people would see it because I never really hear it mentioned

[00:24:07] it is one that I think since it is Disney it's this sort of melodramatic maybe it gets the wrong reputation or it's rubs people the wrong way but I think it's amazing and it does all of the simple normal things incredibly well

[00:24:23] and I'll always go back to it because it's always one that leaves me sort of drained but in a good way and that's on Disney plus if you haven't alright well I think that is about it next week I don't want to get into the

[00:24:38] habit of saying stuff that ends up changing in terms of what we're reviewing next week or if Elle will be back or not I want to just leave that in the gray for right now but there will be more daily shows as normal hopefully

[00:24:50] we'll be doing that week to week maybe if we get too backed up it may be every other week or maybe we'll just skip one week in the month I don't know but I

[00:24:57] love doing it so much I'm gonna do it whenever possible and if you have any ideas in terms of release dates or how to do it how to schedule it let me know through any of the contact information below but there's still plenty great

[00:25:09] content coming so don't worry and as always subscribe rate review please right now if you haven't yet and thank you again to all those who have follow us on social media at film buds me and my wife and co-host Elle on

[00:25:22] letterboxd and all that is in the show notes as I've said so as always hope you enjoyed even half as much as I did and I'll see you next time