Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Revolution for Covid

      January 14, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: My Precious: On Leaving My Abusive Ex-Husband and Being Left with the Ring

      January 13, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: Saw-Whet

      January 7, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Review

      Review – : once teeth bones coral : by Kimberly Alidio

      January 7, 2021

      Review

      Review: Defacing the Monument by Susan Briante

      December 21, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Revolution for Covid

      January 14, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      WOVEN: My Precious: On Leaving My Abusive Ex-Husband and Being Left with the Ring

      January 13, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Birds: Saw-Whet

      January 7, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Review

      Review – : once teeth bones coral : by Kimberly Alidio

      January 7, 2021

      Review

      Review: Defacing the Monument by Susan Briante

      December 21, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
Film

Revisiting Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris, an Anti-Classic for a New Generation

written by Guest Contributor August 9, 2019

The 15:17 to Paris chronicles the true-life story of U.S. First Class Airman Spencer Stone, along with U.S. Army Specialist Alek Skarlatos and their mutual friend Anthony Sadler, who played a pivotal role in foiling an attack aboard a Paris-bound Thalys train in 2015. The three friends, with help from a number of fellow passengers in the process, bum-rushed the attacker after he exited the bathroom and his rifle jammed, subsequently working together and suffering injuries in subduing him before any lives were taken. They received France’s esteemed Legion of Honour for their heroism, so let’s leave them with those wonderful accolades, because the men unfortunately play themselves in this latest Hollywood film that would otherwise besmirch their legacy.

The 15:17 to Paris is, quite possibly, the best comedy since Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, meaning that it’s also one of the worst films I have ever seen, and you should debate for yourself whether you wish to avoid the agony of an increasingly bland, sentimental string of events that not only fails to do the heroes of the story justice but also aggressively undermines their bravery and reduces them to inhuman cutouts spouting absurd dialogue and trudging around Europe to snap a few (ok, a lot of) uninspired selfies, or actually sit through it all and maybe end up crying with laughter at the inanity of everything leading up to the brief event that inspired it—if this sentence has seemed unbearably long to you, then congratulations, for you have successfully conditioned yourself to sit through 95% of Clint Eastwood’s recent directorial effort. You might even be prepared to sit back and, yes, enjoy it.

First and foremost, the non-actors who play themselves are to be pitied, many scenes appearing to have been shot with one or two throwaway takes. Now, this practice of employing non-actors for a starker naturalism is nothing new to cinema; Robert Bresson and Jim Jarmusch did so regularly, and more recent films like Heaven Knows What and Beasts of the Southern Wild bear impressive performances from the likes of a recovering addict and a career baker. Furthermore, Eastwood has explained that his style is the “one-or-two-take-and-done,” and it would be understandable to avoid subjecting these men repeatedly to the very trauma that they lived through. However, there is no excuse here, since that trauma covers only about 10 final minutes of the film that are surprisingly competent anyway, the rest of it being a mundane travelogue including a moment akin to The Room’s coffee shop scene in which our protagonists order gelato in real time. The dialogue is chock full of that hesitation, second-guessing, and small talk that come with ordering food in new surroundings. So it’s fair to say that a few, no, countless more takes would have been necessary here. What we get instead are unconvincing performances even in the most superficial exchanges—every laugh is artificial, every facial expression devoid of emotion, and every line reading painfully forced.

But discomfort runs rampant even among talented people sprinkled in, like the usually multifaceted Judy Greer and understated Jenna Fischer as an intriguing pair of dogmatic mothers who appear rarely apart. Yet they, too, are made unlikable through thinly written personalities, orating conservative philosophies here and fawning over their sons’ cuteness there. Even more, there is little chemistry between them, since rather than being a symbiotic couple whose distinguishable quirks and nuances complement, conflict with, and ultimately complete each other, they might as well be the exact same character or no character at all. Fischer and Greer fade into the film’s periphery with wide-eyed, overly-protective expressions, their scenes serving either to push an extraneous ideology or give the parents in the audience something to “Awww” over.

Oh, and why not throw in a few other friendly faces like Thomas Lennon, Tony Hale, and Jaleel White to sleep through generic roles in fleeting, joyless scenes? These are three character actors who have risen beyond their already iconic roles, avoiding the harsh clutch of typecasting, to prove versatile, instantly distinct screen presences with sharp comic timing. Here, though, they fall victim to the same uninspired directorial choices that hang over The 15:17 to Paris like an unseen Grim Reaper. Maybe some viewers will have an instinctual chuckle at discovering their sitcom favorites in a straight-laced “drama,” but they’ll soon be disappointed to find that nothing has been written for them beyond academic archetypes. That’s literally it: Lennon, Hale, and White are a principal who keeps the kids in check, a whistle-happy coach with a loud enough voice to direct a team of sweaty pre-teens, and a teacher who hands out grades and capably instructs a class. Greer and Fischer included, there are no eccentricities, fleshed-out character traits, or even just conduits for the sake of exposition dumps, but far worse; these skilled performers are merely present, their characters bland as hell, and they seem to be just as baffled to be here as we are.

This film, therefore, is a terrorist attack in itself, one that detonates the dramatic filmmaking process by targeting the craft of scriptwriting to leave us with no shelter from the poor direction and its crippling shockwaves. Notice how I’ve avoided the ironically obvious term “failed” in making this claim—that would imply a complete disaster, nothing more than a whimper in a train corridor. No, this is bombastic; it will shock you, discomfort you, and dare you to not look away. The 15:17 to Paris accomplishes such a feat by throwing motivation, pacing, aesthetics, subtlety, and general understanding of human behavior out of a burning window and plummeting to a blunt-force impact on the pavement below. In other words, it’s an unforgettable contribution to the biopic genre.

Sure, it just so happens to make up for (only slightly) its lethal shortcomings in a total of about 10 minutes in which the camera techniques become energized and manage to deliver a tense moment. But this is perhaps the single moment it comes close to getting right, or the only one that the filmmakers seemed to care about. Otherwise, the cinematography and narrative momentum are sterile, characterless, and lacking in any distinctive texture or fluidity that would have made this world seem lived-in or inspired or just plain well-made. Which brings me to yet another major problem: it feels brutally long even at a slim runtime of 94 minutes. There is a 40-minute stretch where the protagonists engage in uncomfortably long Skype calls and wander beautiful cities (filmed in a cardboard, identity-less fashion, just to reiterate) while interacting with complete strangers, taking photos, ordering that godforsaken gelato, hopping on a stripper pole, and exchanging horrendous dialogue such as, “Do you ever just feel like life is just pushing us towards something, like some greater purpose?” But this line was used heavily in the film’s promotional material, so that’s not even the worst of it; Greer’s opening “mic-drop” sets the tone as she responds to a teacher’s pragmatism with, “My God is greater than your statistics.” If this were a parody of the alt-right, then that line would probably be an incisive jab, but no, there’s no doubt it’s said in earnest here.

The 15:17 to Paris is, unlike the polished high-speed vessel of its final moments, an absolute trainwreck of a film—perhaps well intentioned and respectful of the real-life figures, but ultimately a farce of everyone who inspired it by proving a wholly incompetent piece of cinema. It could have been a tense documentary. It could have been a moving short film. Hell, it could have been a remotely decent feature film in much better hands than these, hands that might have created a mood or personality at the bare minimum. They might have even acted upon a professional impulse to step back from overbearing agenda and half-hearted witticisms to produce a carefully observed portrait of these events. What we got instead is an airbrushed, artless, hokey, insufferably dull, and shockingly amateur attempt to dramatize this story, one that, in terms of basic emotional investment, registers as a few episodes of a daytime soap opera.

More than anything, though, it is a film that made my stomach hurt from laughing through three quarters of its runtime, which is, when you really take a moment to think about it, something quite disturbing; The 15:17 to Paris turns a story revolving around a horrific event, along with the actual men who prevented it from getting worse, into something unabashedly hilarious.


Tyler is a Brooklyn-based adjunct writing professor and freelance film critic. His previous publications include the New York Public Library Zine!, After the Pause, and Film Matters. When not teaching or writing, he can be found watching notoriously bad films with his friends.

Revisiting Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris, an Anti-Classic for a New Generation was last modified: March 31st, 2020 by Guest Contributor
anti-classicclint eastwood
0 comment
0
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Avatar
Guest Contributor

Entropy posts are often submitted to us by our fantastic readers & guest contributors. We'd love to receive a contribution from you too. Submission Guidelines.

previous post
I Listened to Johnny Cash This Morning and Almost Cried
next post
Under the Influence #13

You may also like

Best of 2016: Our Top 25 Movies, Plus What We’re Anticipating in 2017

December 31, 2016

OUT 2: Jacques Rivette is Dead

February 13, 2016

The Rectal Test

August 10, 2017

30 Years of Ghibli: When Marnie Was There

December 10, 2015
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • Lisa S Thank you so much for your kind words and your feedback. I can only hope my story is able to help someone who needs it.

    WOVEN: This isn’t love ·  January 8, 2021

  • Ann Guy Thank you, Josh. And glad you didn’t get tetanus at band camp on that misguided day.

    A Way Back Home ·  December 24, 2020

  • Ann Guy Thank you, Tyler! Great to make a connection with another Fremonster. I had a wonderful catchup with your uncle while doing research for my essay. I think Fremont is a microcosm of what’s occurring...

    A Way Back Home ·  December 23, 2020

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • Food and Covid-19
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2020 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top