Brave Hearts
‘15:17 to Paris’ shows us the banality of good
REVIEWS for Clint Eastwood’s latest tale of heroism, “The 15:17 to Paris,” have been unsparing. But that’s less a reflection on the movie’s quality than reviewers’ expectations — and their failure to sufficiently appreciate its point.
“Arse-numbingly dull” was what The Guardian’s Wendy Ide called it. “A failed experiment” that can’t “just be dismissed as ‘bad,’ ” huffs The Atlantic’s David Sims.
When you see the clear what they mean.
Eastwood sought to honor three real-life American heroes — Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler — who saved the lives of scores of fellow passengers by taking down a terrorist on a high-speed train from Amsterdam in August 2015. Yet, as the critics note, the climactic confrontation with the heavily armed and dangerous Ayoub El Khazzani, 25, lasts but a few minutes. The rest of the movie seems like tedious filler.
A second gripe: Eastwood has the heroes play themselves, and, alas, they make better terrorist-subduers than actors.
The naysayers aren’t wrong. The first third of the film plods through the three men’s mundane childhoods: their friendship in school, their trips to the principal’s office, their fondness for playing soldier and, particularly in Stone’s case, their desire to help others.
Like most kids, the boys catch a bit of hell here and there for mischief (e.g., toilet-papering a neighbor’s house) and childhood lapses. But they’re good kids. film, it’s
The film then turns to the now-older Stone’s enlistment and subsequent stumbles as an airman, before moving on to his Summer 2015 backpacking tour of Europe with his buddies. The time-eating trek — through Rome, Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam — confirms the critics’ objections: It couldn’t be more generic or less dramatic.
The boys marvel at the size of the Coliseum and explore Venice. They share a dinner with a California woman before heading to Berlin. We learn (repeatedly) that Anthony, like the ste- reotypical American tourist, takes a lot of selfies.
Who cares? And what difference does it make that along the way, the boys reconsider their itinerary? That might’ve proven fateful, but it’s hardly unusual.
So why does Eastwood spend so much time on a banal run-up to the main event?
Because there’s no better way to make his point: that “arsenumbingly” ordinary boys, with typical, mundane lives, could suddenly emerge as heroes, saving lives and changing history.
True, the three were all around 23 at the time and fit. Stone, 6’4,” and Skarlatos are beefy, and they have the advantage of having had some military training.
Yet Khazzani wields a knife, a pistol, an AK-47 and nearly 300 rounds of ammo. His muscular body (shirtless for better access to his weapons) and stern ex- pression are terrifying. He has already shot one passenger and seems determined to inflict mass casualties.
Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler, by contrast, have no weapons. And they’re real-life, regular people — not Marvel superheroes.
Yet they are equipped with something powerful: a drive to help others. Stone’s reflexive determination to prevent tragedy is as great as Khazzani’s is to produce it. As the terrorist points his rifle squarely at Stone just a few feet away, the American charges. Who (besides movie action heroes) does that?
Had Khazzani’s rifle not jammed, Stone — along with countless passengers — might’ve been killed. Eastwood would’ve had a very different movie to make.
For the 87-year-old director, “The 15:17 to Paris” is a logical follow-up to his 2016 “Sully,” about Capt. Chesley Sullenberger’s split-second decision to land Flight 1549 on the Hudson in 2009 — another unconventional, largely flat account of an enormously dramatic story.
And that film extended a lifelong filmography focused heavily on heroism and standing up for what’s right — from Eastwood’s Westerns, to his Dirty Harry days, to “American Sniper.”
The difference is at this point, with all his awards and money, he doesn’t have to worry about churning out high drama, suspense or even entertainment.
If you’re looking for that, “15:17” will disappoint. But Eastwood had something important to say. And he said it well.