Direction by Clint Eastwood
Screenplay by Dorothy Blyskal
Based on The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes by Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, & Alek Skarlatos and Jeffrey E. Stern
“Courage is grace under pressure.”
– Ernest Hemingway
From 2014-2018, when film historians pour over Clint Eastwood’s oeuvre looking for patterns, they’ll find an interesting, unique trilogy of real-life heroes guided by God and country. It started with American Sniper, a movie most will look back on in wonder as to how the Academy didn’t award it Best Picture. The next was a barely-recognized, smaller story called Sully, about the real-life ‘Plane on the Hudson incident. It was a movie I greatly appreciated while my friends dismissed as barely a trifle. Now, we get The 15:17 to Paris, which aims even smaller, crafting itself around a novelty that is both frustrating and honorable.
On August 21st, 2015, the Thalys (French-Belgian high-speed train) commute from Amsterdam to Paris was disrupted when a man attempted to murder the passengers. It may or may not have been Islamic Terrorism (it likely was) but it barely got underway when the passengers, three Americans and one Frenchman, immediately responded. It probably helped that before firing the guy came out of the bathroom in his underwear like a nut-bar.
Known for crafting his movies relatively unsentimentally (though I tend to disagree with the assertion, given those nostalgic piano scores he routinely composes), Eastwood has taken his 36th feature to the most real level outside of straight-forward documentary re-enactment: He cast the actual Americans that stopped the attack.
Though the Frenchman wants to remain anonymous due to fear of Islamic reprisal, the story of Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, and Spencer Stone is told mostly in flashback, with a travelogue in the later portion of the picture for stops in Italy and Germany. All from Sacramento, California, the three kids became fast friends, specifically when Anthony tells off his gym teacher for being unfair. Right off the bat there was a strong sense of justice in Spencer that lead him to back not only the underdog Anthony, but buck authority’s warning of him and keep the kid close for life.
The 15:17 to Paris is mostly Spencer’s film; Anthony receives the least amount of background while Alek, a National Guardsman, is deployed to Afghanistan and given a monologue about his grandfather while dating a stunning German girl. Spencer, an Air Force Staff Sergeant who failed his pararescue tests due to depth perception issues, is given the spotlight for most of the 100-minute run-time: showing his struggle, at first with motivation, then with getting to class on time and sewing fabric, failing, trying again, failing, rinse, repeat.
It’s implied more than once that Spencer either has Attention Deficit Disorder or may be a bit of a troublemaker. His Christian mother, a single parent, struggles with her anger at his antics. She needn’t have worried so much because deep down Spencer is a good kid, praying at night to God; “Make me a channel of your Peace…”
The Thalys incident itself is played mostly straight, though the ferocity of the terrorist on Spencer surprised me. There are so many face punches and knife cuts I got a little squirmy watching. Eastwood’s camera really doesn’t seem to have too much stake in all of this, though, refusing to romanticize or glorify. It’s strange, that tactic, though the pay-offs tend to be stronger (the honors the men receive start to draw deep-seeded emotion) when we aren’t too manipulated.
If the film struggles to get our attention it might be because of two things: 1) The story simply not being big enough to justify an almost-100-minute run-time and 2) The performances.
I’ll start with the latter.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the real-life people who play themselves aren’t professional actors. What might surprise you is that not only do you get used to them over time but in many cases they aren’t all bad (though never professional). Not to diminish the acting involved but more than once I felt greater empathy with them than, say, Jenna Fischer.
Speaking of, many of the secondary actors in this movie are sitcom veterans. The gym teacher is Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Spencer and Alek’s mother’s Judy Greer (always the mom, and also from Development) and Fischer (The Office). Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!) is the principal, while Irene White (Superstore) and Jaleel White (Steve Urkle on Family Matters) play teachers. It’s an interesting choice that I came away ambivalent towards, given that they aren’t used to comic effect or much at all, really. With the exception of Greer, they could have been played by any day-player.
The top complaint might be that the film is not worth the time invested. I can’t complain about that myself because I find stories of real-life events engaging just by nature of them having happened. Even the padding feels more like tension-building as the “event” closes in for me. Eastwood, I think, agrees with me on that. It’s all worth it because the purity of the heroism makes that journey worthy.
Eastwood has spent his life making stories about courage, mostly in the Western genre. As he got older his sense of the heroic was much more sophisticated (Unforgiven, Gran Torino). Recently, he seems to be coming back to the idea that heroism is oftentimes not all that sophisticated and good people do good things because it’s the right thing to do. It’s also right that we celebrate them and encourage people to emulate heroism, not discourage it.
Early on, when Spencer is in class, an “Active Shooter” alarm goes off, everyone ducking and covering (shades of the Atomic Era) but not him. He goes right to the door with a ball-point pen, waiting to take down anyone who would threaten his classmates. When it turns out it was a false alarm the teacher says to the class, “Show of hands. Who thinks Stone is an a$$hole?” All raise their hands.
You know what? I wouldn’t have.
Verdict:Â A Documented Slice
Rated PG-13
Film Culture: Sully (Clint Eastwood, 2016). Pilot Chesley Sullenberger had to land his ‘plane on the Hudson river after Canadian geese flew into the engines, causing failure. All 155 passengers survived. Unlike 15:17 to Paris, Sully has A-list acting talent to create greater drama than it actually had to offer. Sully was played by Tom Hanks, who is nothing if not the most sympathetic character actor of his generation. Even in the end, however, it must be acknowledged that there’s something powerful about Sully’s strength, not only under pressure, but of character. This movie is part two of the unofficial “Real Heroes” trilogy by Eastwood.
Did You Know: Spencer Stone Stabbed. Implied throughout 15:17 to Paris, though carefully avoided as a negative, is that Spencer isn’t the most co-operative or easy-going individual. His teacher implied he has Attention Deficit Disorder, which is probably partly true, if his lone wolf-esque character is any indication.
So it was on October 8th, 2015, just a ew months after the Thalys Incident that a Californian named James Tran stabbed him multiple times in the back torso with a knife. This happened in Sacramento after Spencer caught Tran taking pictures of some of his female companions.
The altercation led to open-heart surgery, with attention needed on his lungs and liver as well. He fully recovered from the incident, even forgiving Tran: “At the end of the day, I forgive the guy.” Spencer is just the kind of guy that can’t seem to not act. Gotta admire that. Sort of.
