Euphemism-free analysis of the ethical and psychological aspects of Hollywood films.

The 15:17 To Paris

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_1517_to_paris/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_15:17_to_Paris

Biographical Drama

Based on the true story of the 2015 Thalys Train Attack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Thalys_train_attack

The film follows the lives of 3 friends, from their childhood up through their courageous efforts to thwart a violent attacker on a train.    

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Starring   

Spencer Stone as himself 

Anthony Sadler as himself 

Alek Skarlatos as himself

Before delving into the film’s storyline and appalling propaganda, I just want to clarify one thing.  

The criticism I offer in this analysis is not directed at the courageous and moral acts these men performed on that train.  They should be commended for what they did on that train.  

However, and most unfortunately, their story has been used by the social engineers of Hollywood to spread immoral messages (mainly pro-military). 

I am writing this analysis in an effort to expose and counteract the harmful messages this film conveys.   

With that said, here are the main psychological and ethical themes I found in the film, all of which are in opposition to Natural Law, Morality, Truth, and Liberty.

1.  Authoritarianism in multiple forms:

     A.  Schooling (forced youth indoctrination)

     B.  Military Worship (violence, moral relativism, and order-following)

     C.  Nationalism (violently imposed collectivism)

2.  Anti-gun

The film starts out by showing Stone, Sadler, and Skarlatos as boys growing up in Sacramento, California.  They are repeatedly being bullied, not so much by other people their own age, but by the authoritarians in the forced indoctrination camp (school) they attend.  The school is, somewhat ironically, Christian.    

There is no shortage of military (violent gang of rights-violators) propaganda in these early stages of the film.  Stone has a “Full Metal Jacket” poster on his bedroom wall.  They run around playing war and shooting each other with toy guns.  At one point during one of their “war games”, a young Skarlatos says, “There’s just something about war, the history, the camaraderie, ya know?”

Camaraderie means good-fellowship, comradeship, trust, goodwill among friends.  

So what does camaraderie have to do with murder on a massive scale (war)?  Or you could look at it from the point of view that the comradeship is between members of an extortion funded cult, called the military.  Either way, this short clip in the movie made me fill with righteous indignation.    

The film jumps (not so smoothly) to shortly after the 3 graduate high school.  Skarlatos joins the murderous cult in uniforms with fancy titles (military) and goes off to Afghanistan to inflict carnage.  Sadler avoids extortion funded work and goes on to further his indoctrination at college.  At this point, the film focuses on Stone.  He tells Sadler that he’s decided to join the extortion-funded flight gang (Air Force) and become a member of the pararescue squad.  Sadler irks him a bit by saying he doesn’t exactly have a strong record in the perseverance department.    

Driven to prove himself, Stone gets in shape and passes all the tests required over the next year, only to just barely miss out on qualifying for pararescue, due to a lack of depth perception.    

The next scene is probably what shocked me the most.  If for no other reason, this one scene would have been enough to write a psychological analysis of the film.

Frustrated by this failure, Stone has a talk with his friend Sadler.  The one line in the conversation that literally made me gasp out loud, was this…...

Stone says to Sadler, “I just wanted to go to war.  I wanted to save lives, ya know?”

I was so stunned at hearing this, that I had to rewind and hear it again.    

“I just wanted to go to WAR.  I wanted to SAVE LIVES, ya know?”

In case there is any doubt in anyone’s mind who is reading this:

“WAR DOES NOT SAVE LIVES.  WAR INVOLVES MASS MURDER”
 

But for the majority of people out there, who passively digest information and don’t have any active cognitive defense skills, this utter 1984-esque propaganda sinks in. The damage is done.  War is Peace LIE has been delivered to the subconscious.

That’s why I write reviews like this.  To counteract destructive, immoral, evil lies like that.    

Moving on……

Stone ends up getting trained in a different field within the extortion-funded air mob (Air Force).  After his training, he makes plans to meet up with his friends Skarlatos and Sadler in Europe over the summer.    

The film goes through some mundane tourism scenes.  Sightseeing, partying, etc.  I have a feeling that Eastwood and others involved in making this film had a hard time filling up the time here as nothing much happened.  (The film has a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason)

Eventually, they make it onto a train that's headed to Paris.  A lone criminal comes out of the bathroom carrying a gun as the train is chugging along.  The first guy that tries to disarm him ends up getting shot in the neck.  People scream and flee to different train cars.    

I should point out here the anti-gun message of the film.  This one criminal, on a train with over 500 people, should have been dead, or at least subdued, in less than a minute.  

Why? 

Because people should be able to carry guns and defend themselves.  But they don’t.  

Why don't people carry guns? Either morally-relativistic, illegitimate words posing as "law" prevent them, or they're under such deep mind control that they think guns are inherently evil.  

If more people would carry guns to defend themselves, then one criminal could not inflict so much fear.  But because people are disarmed and trained to hide and/or flee, they become easy targets.  They have been trained to become victims.   

Just to be clear, the only people in this film that have guns are:

1.  A lone violent criminal with no uniform

2.  Criminals in uniforms (military and police)

Psychological effect on passive viewers:  The only people that have guns outside of government are bad.

So Stone charges the attacker.  Fortunately for Stone and hundreds of others on the train, the rifle jams.  This enables Stone to tackle the attacker.  Skarlatos takes the rifle and starts to beat the attacker with it.  After knocking out the attacker, Stone checks on the guy that got shot in the neck and helps to stop the bleeding.    

At the next stop, medical staff and order-followers with badges (police) take over.  The next, and final scene, is the 3 friends, along with others who helped on the train, receiving “honors” from the top psychopath in the exoteric ruling gang with fancy titles (president of government) of the violently controlled collective of France, Francois Hollande.  He puts fancy pins on them, makes a speech, and grandstands for morality in a sickening display of statist, authority-worshiping, hypocritical garbage PR.  

There’s one question I’d like to pose as I close this out.  

If 2 of the heroes on that train hadn’t been members of the military cult, would the media have made such a big deal of this event? Would the film even have been made? Was it just too good of a PR opportunity for the social engineers to pass up? 

What do you think? 

If you'd like to learn about Natural Law, I recommend Mark Passio's presentation.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASUHN3gNxWo 

Thanks for your time and attention!

Just say "NO" to slavery!

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