The 15:17 to Paris (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino, Space Cowboys, Play Misty for me, J. Edgar)
	Actors: Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.09.2019, in-flight entertainment 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Alez, Anthony and Spencer (themselves) are friends since they are kids. Children of divorced parents, changing school, discovering life... they were always together. Young adults they turn to the military. One day they decide to spend holidays in Europe. Fate will follow them.
Review: One of Clint Eastwood's recent but lesser known movies, The 15:17 to Paris relates the events of the terrorist attack onboard the Amsterdam-Paris Thalys train of August 21 2015. When the movie starts I was wondering how Eastwood would manage to stretch over 90 minutes an event that, from memory, was over before it started. Cleverly, and inspired by the autobiography The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, he starts by following the main characters from the youngest age. I didn't like that first third of the movie, feeling like exposition after exposition, showing us with regular timing the events that shaped those boys. Also I am not sure about Eastwood's message about guns and religion. Once the characters are adult the movie then feels more like a Documentary but that makes it getting better. You feel that it is inspired by true stories because nobody would have the idea to write such backstories for the main character, in particular Spencer that fails in different branches of the military and is definitely not a super-warrior. I pieced together as the movie went that the three main characters were played by themselves! That explains why the film feels like that and was shot like that. This is in fact the tour de force by Eastwood in that movie: directing non-professional actors in a way that gives realism to the movie and doesn't feel weird like P'tit Quiquin did for example. The third act is a recreation of the attack and its resolution, until an inclusion of the footage of the soldiers received the Legion d'Honneur from the French President. The final touch that makes the movie less flat than it could have been is the emphasis on the hesitation of the group of friends to take that particular train, and the reflections of Spencer on how he feels that life pushes him to a greater purpose. Indeed what are the odds that all the described events happen and lead to the three friends preventing the attack? Any other combination of events would have led to a totally different story, possibly with tens of victims... I can't be too harsh with a movie that leave me reflecting on such topics.
Rating: 6 /10