Algeria/France, 1994, four heavily armed terrorists hijacked an Air France, Paris bound, plane in Algiers with 227 passengers on board. After remaining on the runway for hours because of the planes inability to take off, the hijackers were grants permission and soon after they had to land in Marseilles, France because the plane didn’t have enough fuel to reach Paris. The film follows the perspectives of one of the Jihadists on the plane, an overzealous French foreign ministry employee, and a GIGN officer named Thierry (Vincent Elbaz) (the French version of our SWAT team used for counter terrorism and hostage operations). This movie is based on the true events that occurred on Air France Flight 8969 on December 24, 1994, it was aired live in front of 21 million viewers.
I’ll admit it, the title is what instantly caught my attention and the main reason I decided to check this film out. Once I read the synopsis I was sold. As for the film itself, it wasn’t too shabby.
The Assault is director Julien Leclercq’s second feature film and I think he did a pretty good job with it. I particularly liked the visual style and the way the film was edited. The style was much like something you would see in a modern day horror film, everything is in gray or white, providing for a high contrast between the characters and the space around them. As for the editing, it is praiseworthy because of how it weaved the different perspectives of the same story into one coherent and linear line, making it rather easy to follow.
I also really enjoyed the score because it was the only aspect which really heightened the suspense throughout the movie, especially since the first half wasn’t suspenseful at all. I don’t know how a hijacking can’t be suspenseful, but nothing grabbed me when it happened and when the first hostages were killed and more were threatened I still wasn’t on the edge of my seat like I felt I should have been. MINOR TRUE STORY SPOILER The movies suspense comes in the form of the GIGN team as they prepare for and eventually storm the plane. END SPOILER
While the acting was good, there were a couple of characters in this story that I just didn’t like at all but I’ll only dive into one. Theirry’s wife comes to mind, she is the epitome of the worrying wife. They clearly have had some marital problems because she doesn’t want him working in the field anymore but she knew the risks when she married him. My issue with her is how upset she is the entire movie and then how much she cries as the assault on the plane is initiated. Before they storm the plane she’s crying, it just doesn’t make any sense, no one is that emotional when they can’t pick their husband out of identical looking men, if she saw his face then I’d understand. She is given more time than is needed on screen when instead we could be watching the assault, I disagree with her role in the movie despite it trying to give us the regular citizen perspective on the situation.
Overall, The Assault was a cool thriller about one of the most successful counter terrorism operations in history. Although the ending was good, and is where the movie gets its name, it was not enough to make up for the average buildup where the promised feelings of thrills and suspense were at the sub-par level. If you only watch the last 20 minutes, you’ll definitely be a happy camper.
Rating: A bland/mediocre French thriller with a story that’s much better than the actual product (5.9/10)
You can check out The Assault at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 23, 24, and 28th.
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