75. The 17:15 To Paris; movie review

THE 15:17 TO PARIS
Cert 15
94 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, injury detail

Fair play to Clint Eastwood - the principle of The 15:17 To Paris is original and laudable. Sadly, it doesn't work.
Rather than choose actors to represent a real-life tale of heroism, he directed the heroes themselves.
They might be adept at seeing off terrorists but, unsurprisingly, they can't act.
The headline-grabbing action of Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler was incredibly brave but lasted only a few minutes so to pad his film out, Eastwood tells their life stories up to that point.
The problem is that they are ordinary folk who, outside of their extraordinary feat, have the same mundane lives as everyone else.
Ok, they were all troublesome at school and Stone, in particular, had to battle very hard for his place in the Armed Forces but there isn't much else to say about them.
It is curious to me that Eastwood, for all his experience, struggles so badly in engendering dramatic effect from a movie about quelling a terrorist.
For example, there is way too long spent watching the men recreate the tour around Europe before the fateful journey.
Over and over again, they debate whether they can be bothered to go to Paris at all because other travellers have been left cold by it.
But the audience can't be fooled - we know they catch the train because if they didn't there wouldn't be a movie.
In addition, the very fact that all three of the men are playing their real-life characters shows they survived. This simple knowledge also dissipates the tension.
It occurs to me that if Eastwood wanted his film to be so close to mirroring real events he would have been better to create a documentary.
If he had, non-actors would have been saved the embarrassment of trying to pretend they are something they are not and the audience could have been gripped.
As it was, I thought his praiseworthy intention of putting three heroes on a pedestal falls far flatter than it should have done.

Reasons to watch: An unusual concept of using real life heroes playing out their drama
Reasons to avoid: Just five minutes of drama in a 94-minute movie

Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 4.5/10

Director's quote - Clint Eastwood: “It’s not an intellectual art form, it’s an emotional art form and the reason that they did well was they were back in the same locations, with the same feel.”

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