When you tell certain stories, some thought should be put into how you want them to be interpreted and absorbed. In the case of adapting them for the screen, some of these stories benefit from being portrayed as feature films.
Films with ensemble casts can accurately recreate stories and deliver strong performances, which elicit appropriate emotions and reactions. Other stories are well-suited to be conveyed as documentaries. They bring human interest to the forefront by relating the accounts of the real-life individuals involved.
“The 15:17 to Paris” is a bit of a hybrid between the two approaches. Adapted from the non-fiction book of the same name and directed by the great Clint Eastwood, the film details events in the lives of three friends: U.S. Air Force Airman first class Spencer Stone, college senior Anthony Sadler and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos.
The titular and real-life event occurred when the three young men subdued an individual, thus preventing what could have been a mass shooting on a train running from Amsterdam to Paris Aug. 21, 2015. Stone, Sadler and Skarlatos all played themselves in the film.
At first, the film jumps back and forth between moments in their lives prior to Aug. 21 and perspectives from other individuals present during the incident. The audience flashes back to see the mothers of Stone and Skarlatos, played by Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer, informed by an elementary school teacher that their sons lack serious focus and could benefit from medication.
The film zooms ahead as we see a couple noting that the would-be gunman has been in a train bathroom for a long time. The film unfolds this way until the three men reunite while visiting Europe. The events of their trip and those of the incident then follow a linear progression.
The film focuses heavily on strictly recreating certain events involving the three men which led up to Aug. 21. Documenting the events of their European trip, for example, makes the film descend too much into a buddy-vacation kind of experience.
Its inclusion may suggest that its purpose was to fulfill the film’s runtime.
The opening of the film features the perpetrator of the incident being portrayed via multiple-angle camera shots which obscured his face. It is perplexing why the filmmakers chose to have the picture begin in this manner, when they could have used a more appropriate subject(s).
A film is always taking a chance when real-life individuals are recruited to play themselves, but this film nearly pulls it off. Sadler and Skarlatos seem fairly natural and pretty convincing, but Stone’s obvious discomfort in front of the camera drags both of them down.
The non-linear structure that the film follows in its near entirety is confusing and lacks significant depth. It can be understood that the film was trying to establish background as to how and why the three men took action that day, but the film does not provide enough examples to justify how they formed that frame of mind.
Including the perspectives of the other passengers detracted from the film’s probable focus on Stone, Sadler and Skarlatos, though these perspectives do not deserve to be dismissed outright.
“The 15:17 to Paris” would have done greater justice as a documentary.
Letting the voices of Stone, Sadler, Skarlatos and others speak for themselves would have lent greater resolve to ensuring the safety and well-being of our fellow man.
