L’Assaut (2011) - film review

Islamic terrorists have taken an Air France Airbus-300 hostage.  They are armed and extremely dangerous, and the lives of the 227 people on board the aircraft are at stake.  The terrorists demand the release of their cohorts and the immediate takeoff of the aeroplane.  It is only after intensive negotiation and the execution of three of the passengers that the plane leaves the tarmac.  On the morning of Monday 26th December 1994, the Airbus lands at Marseille.  Before a worldwide television audience of 21 million, anti-terrorist troops prepare to bring the hijack to its dramatic conclusion...

Having made something of a splash with his distinctive sci-fi thriller Chrysalis (2007), director Julien Leclercq ventures into more controversial territory with his latest film, revisiting one of the most traumatic recent events in French history - one that would be a chilling precursor of September 11th 2001.  The hijacking of an Airbus-300 on Christmas Eve 1994 by armed Algerian Islamists was to have a profound impact on the French psyche, just as the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on that fateful day in 2001 would shake the confidence of the American nation and leave deep scars that will endure for many decades.    Leclercq’s film (a stylish action romp that tries and fails to be something a little deeper) attempts to piece together the fragmentary accounts of the 1994 hijacking, by presenting those nervewracking three days from the point of view of the unfortunate passengers and the members of France’s counter-terrorist police squad (the GIGN) who ultimately liberated them.

21 million people reputedly watched the dramatic Boxing Day rescue when it was televised live and broadcast to the four corners of the world in 1994.  It is highly unlikely that Leclercq will achieve anything like that size of audience with his film.  Coldly detached and pretty uncompromising in its depiction of violence, the film is uncomfortable to watch and it is far from certain what Leclercq’s motivation was for making it - was it to make us even more afraid about flying (thereby helping us all to reduce our carbon footprint), or to reassure us that, in the unlikely event that our plane will fall into the hands of armed fanatics, a fearless band of gun-toting heroes will be sent in by the French government to save us from certain death. 

On the face of it L’Assaut appears to be just another cynically motivated appropriation of a real-life crisis for commercial gain - but that doesn’t prevent it from being an effective action thriller.  Taking his cue from Paul Greengrass’s United 93 (2006), one of the more respectable screen re-enactments of the September 11th hijackings, Leclercq goes for near-documentary realism (something which allows him to seamlessly incorporate news footage of the real hijacking and GIGN rescue) whilst imposing his own auteur stamp through the marvels afforded by digital photography.  In a conventional film drama, Leclercq’s manic addiction to zooming and stroboscopic effects would be highly distracting.  Here, they work surprisingly well, not only heightening the drama, but also lending an oppressive dreamlike quality to the film.  The events we see played out on the screen - particularly the superbly executed action denouement - seem to transcend reality, they have the quality of a nightmare that is struggling to permeate our consciousness.  The greyed-out palette (which Leclercq used so effectively on his previous film), virtually monochrome in some scenes, adds to the sombre dreamlike feel of the film, bringing a harrowing sense of confinement, which works particularly well in the scenes in the aircraft interior.  Far from being distracting, the endlessly roving camera lens and frenetic editing (techniques that are generally over-used in action films these days) create a mood of trepidation and uncertainty and convey a starkly visceral sense of what it is like to live through the traumatic events depicted on the screen.

As the two heroic leads, Vincent Elbaz and Grégori Derangère provide the human element that the film badly needs to sustain it through its grim 90 minute sprint.  Whilst virtually all of the other protagonists are little more than stock caricatures, badly drawn and unconvincingly played, Elbaz and Derangère both succeed in making their characters believable; had this not been the case, the final action sequence could never have been quite so tense and involving.  It is to be regretted that Leclercq fails to bring as much depth to the other characters, particularly the Islamic terrorists, who are reduced to being one-dimensional bogeymen.  The film has not the slightest intention of explaining why the Islamists behave as they do - they are just dark-skinned madmen with guns who patently deserve what they get.  They might as well be marauding aliens from a distant galaxy.  Ten years on from September 11th, one might have hoped for a slightly more nuanced characterisation of Public Enemy Number One than this unintended homage to comicbook-style villiany.

There is certainly much about L’Assaut that doesn’t work, but equally (on the technical front primarily) there is much to be impressed by.  As is often the case with inexperienced but talented filmmakers, Leclercq appears to be far more interested in technique than in content.  His flair for making a strong visual statement is readily discernible, but so also is his lack of maturity when it comes to presenting human feelings and motivations.  L’Assaut is one of those films which make an impact whilst on the screen but leave you unsatisfied, and perhaps mildly resentful, afterwards.  Once he had seen the film, General Favier, a member of the real GIGN team that was involved in freeing the hostages, was encouraged by it and commented that it brought hope to those who now live in fear of similar terrorist atrocities.  By failing to engage (even at the most superficial level) with the real problem (just why do religious fundamentalists have to resort to mass murder?), I would argue that the film is deeply depressing, a step back into the shadows of ignorance and insecurity.  It is now over a decade since the terrible carnage of September 11th, but we seem to be not a jot wiser, either in comprehending the hatred that is fuelling this new era of terrorism or in how to deal with it.  Leclercq’s film - which seems to conclude that we are all safe providing there is the political will and sufficient gun power - serves merely to reinforce this uncomforting impression.

© James Travers 2012

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