The 15 : 17 to Paris (2018)

The 15 : 17 to Paris (2018)

Rating (3/5)

Cast : Spencer Stone, Alek Karlatos, Anthony Sadler, Judy Greer, Jenna Fischer

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Review by Zulfiqar

            Though the movie seemed to have garnered a lot of criticism for its amateurish casting and direction in its initial parts, looking at the overall portrait, it isn’t that bad at all. Clint Eastwood sticks to his flamboyant way of direction, which is no-nonsense and minding the business. Another interesting point to be noted here is he doesn’t give a political angle of the ‘hostage’ situation which happened in the train from Amsterdam to Paris in the August of 2015. He doesn’t point fingers but comments how the rightful and true-to-their-hearts are the heroes of that fiasco.

            The trump card of the movie is the casting of the real life heroes of the incident in their respective roles and the reenactment of the scene. Spencer Stone looks comfortable with the acting chops while Anthony Sadler gives a convincing support. Alek Skarlatos is covered up in his deficiency of acting talent by occupying less screen time. The first twenty to thirty minutes is an unpolished spell of the movie where the younger versions of the heroes go through their dialogue with no proper instructions. Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer as Alek and Spencer’s mothers are given sorry-scenes of typical parent frustration with their kids’ teacher.

            Eastwood gives an impassionate approach of the 3 characters journey to become what they were, when the incident occurred. It is Spencer Stone, who is more sketched here, with the patriotic dreams of becoming a soldier. He is a simple guy with a tough determination to serve his country, but when he is turned down from becoming an Air Forces paramedic, he shows genuine frustration. He utters disgruntled as to not being given a chance to serve when he is more than ready for it. This type of dialogue shows the genuineness of Spencer. There are glimpses into his mind during coaching sessions around the mannequins when he uses simple minded logic to solve the problems. The movie soon evolves into a buddy-backpacking flick with the 3 friends journeying through the Europe map.

            Like Sully, there are many tiny inter-cut bits which are sprawled whole through the length of '15 17 to paris’ as to the main incident which happened. The last 20 minutes is solely the whole episode which is every bit as nitty-gritty as one could hope for. The scene has a lot of heart-thumping tension and jumping-out-of-the-screen reality to it. In short it will establish as to the credulity of the 3 youths action while defusing the situation. Another important aspect is Eastwood’s establishment of the unified atmosphere in the compartment in such a brief period of time. He exactly elicits the mass reaction of the public when turmoil occurs. The life-saving measure of one of the passenger bled in the neck is the main point of the incident. There are ruddy close shots of how Spencer stops the flow from the jugular using his hand which has a half-cut thumb.

            It is an artistic touch when the real-life shots of the ceremony honoring the heroes of the incident along with a doctor-passenger, is inter-cut with the cinematic counterpart. It skillfully occurs against the speech of the French premier.

            The movie may not have the star-power of ‘Sully’ or ‘American Sniper’ but against the advancing age of Eastwood, his passion to make the right movies and do them with such a brisk pace are commendable. Though this might not be a superlative movie, it is a neat one.