I began my blog post by writing a traditional review of Eastwood’s
film, but events this week caused me to take a detour.
The 15:17 to Paris follows the story of three childhood
friends that are normal boys doing boy things growing up. They came from single parent homes with all
the attendant issues. None of the guys
were portrayed as exceptional students.
Spencer Stone had “difficulty fitting in” and apparently had ADHD. It tracks them through middle school mischief
and then into the service, where Spencer Stone struggles along and almost gets
bounced out, but through sheer perseverance, he makes it through and gets both
hand to hand combat training and EMT training, both of which turn out to be
vital skills in foiling the attempted terror attack.
Eastwood uniquely blended professional actors with the
actual heroes playing themselves as central characters in this film. The end of the film also was the actual
awards ceremony where then President Francois Hollande honored these young men
for their courage in saving the passengers.
The reviews of the film have been somewhat mixed so far. Of course, since the actors were not
professional actors, many film critics criticized the film as being a bit
stilted, and that is a fair criticism.
But the shooting of the police commander in downtown Chicago
and the Parkland massacre changed the complexion of the film in my mind and my
perspective on it. I like the film now more
at the end of the week than when I saw it.
Because it is more than about heroism.
The 15:17 to Paris is also a tribute to American men and
American self-reliance, much like American Sniper.
In Chicago last week, a police commander was shot and killed
in downtown Chicago when he answered the call to assist in apprehending a
heavily armed and Kevlar dressed man in the State of Illinois center. Commander Paul Bauer rushed to help his
fellow officers confront a four time drug felon and paid the ultimate
price. Later this week Aaron Feis, a
football coach at Douglas High School was killed when he threw himself in front
of the students to shield them from the shooting rampage of Nikolas Cruz. And then to top it off, a JROTC high school
student, Colton Haab, sprung into action, herding his fellow students into a
room, covered them with Kevlar, and stood by the door with a fire extinguisher
and a 2 x 4 ready to attack the gunman
should he make it to the door. “My main
goal was to make sure everyone got home safe to their family,” he said. The young man is 17 years old.
In light of these events, I saw The 15:17 to Paris in an entirely
different light. It stands as a tribute
to American manhood.
The evening of the Florida shooting, oracle of the Left
liberal law professor Laurence Tribe tweeted out:
“In literally EVERY mass shooting I can recall, the shooter
has been a male. That doesn’t speak well
for my gender, I’m afraid. But it
suggests to me that the NRA’s worst excesses are driven by doubts about
masculinity. Small hands, big guns. A lethal equation.”
Tribe’s absurd tweet captures the demonization of all men by
the Left. We live in an age where men
and manhood are under assault from academia, popular culture and from the mainstream
media. The Women’s March in which both
men and women march around in pink pussy hats and deride “the patriarchy”
(whatever that means). Academics and critics
of the military complain about “toxic masculinity.” Transgenderism is celebrated in the press
(the New York Times just published a big article about the first lactating
transgender mother). Abercrombie and
Fitch recently tried to make a big splash with its gender neutral kids clothing
line. Major elements of the #metoo
movement paint all men as predatory creatures.
On college campuses, men have been stripped of due process rights in
their sexual relationships, and now stealing a kiss on a date can be deemed
sexual assault and subject a young man to expulsion with little chance to tell
his side of the story and little recourse (a raft of lawsuits against
universities are working their way through the courts or are being settled). Little boys have even been suspended from
school for making a fake gun with their thumb and forefinger.
Yes, men are sometimes capable of acting beastly.
But we see in The 15:17 to Paris and in the events this week
that men, good men, real men with traditional qualities that we used to
celebrate in men—bravery, courage, physical strength, decisiveness,
self-sacrificing, protecting—still come in handy when true evil threatens. In the climactic scene, when Stone is engaged in desperate hand to hand combat with the assailant, it occurred to me that only a man would have had a chance at successfully thwarting the terrorist.
The police commander was protecting the citizens of the city
and laid down his life for them--- all strangers. The football coach at Douglas High School
did not hesitate to fling his body between the shooter and the kids whose job
it was to protect. Spencer Stone
instinctively acted to charge and overpower the terrorist who was poised to
take the lives of hundreds of passengers on that train, severely injuring
himself in the process. And even young
Colter Haab cooly reacted to the danger, shielded his classmates, and
demonstrated that he was willing and able to attack the attacker and sacrifice
himself if necessary to protect his fellow students.
There is one small scene where Stone helps an aged man off
the platform and into his proper seat on the train. That older gentleman is the person that men
like Stone are programmed to protect.
I was struck by the convergence of film and real life this
week, and Eastwood’s use of the real heroes in his film. On the Thalys train, in the State of
Illinois building, and on the high school campus in Florida, real men ran
toward the danger and not away from it.
Because that is what real men do. Especially when agents of the State are not around. The Left can continue to try to chip away, blend genders, and de-masculinize our society, but when there is real, life threatening danger present, and the situation is dire, you want real men around.
Laurence Tribe’s sneering comment is standard stuff from the
Left, fired off from the safety of the ivory tower at Hahvahd. There is not a doubt in my mind that under
similar circumstances, he would be cowering under the Kevlar rather than
standing guard at the door.
Go see The 15:17 to Paris.
It is a movie for our time.
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