Mark James

Stunning. Moving as no other movie has moved me in a lifetime Eastwood is brilliant in bringing this story to us through the incredible heroes who actually lived it. Acting is acting, it is a wonderful art, and it is a difficult one to master. Those who are gifted actors can create in us the “suspension of disbelief,” which has made real and perpetuated naturalism and realism since the works of Ibsen, Chekhov, and Strindberg brought to us the “fourth wall“ format, which remains the basis of virtually all movie and television drama today. This movie is something entirely different. Three everyday, although obviously exceptional in character, young men taking a break to see Europe and letting their plans and their feelings about the travel guide them to a destiny none of them could’ve expected. These same three young men, who lived through some of the most dramatic moments any human being can, do their best to reenact the events for all of us to see in the format of a movie. Because we know they are the real people, they are the real heroes we all read about, we don’t view the movie thinking about whether they are good or bad actors, we view the movie as bringing us closer to the real events that happened, heroism that inspired the world. I think the director’s decision to cast the real people in these roles is not only a bold but a brilliant one. One cannot help but be moved to tears after the climactic scenes, when these real life heroes, having saved hundreds of lives, and one life in the most incredible and courageous way possible (Spencer stopping the flow blood from a man’s bullet-torn vein with his fingers and verbally encouraging him to live throughout the ordeal), leave the train. And voiced over the scene is Spencer’s beautiful prayer about being an instrument of God’s peace. Don’t view this movie with an attempt to compare these young men’s reenactment of their own lives with the acting brilliance of say, Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman. Watch them and listen to them as they do an amazing job bringing your heart and your soul into the story of how what should have been a fun, yet average trip to Europe by three young friends, instead led them to events that ignited courage and selflessness in them that will inspire all who hear the story. This is an amazing movie, one all people, especially young people should see and allow to cause them self-reflection that can be nothing but positive for the world.