First and foremost, this review does not come in light of current events revolving two conflictuous nations, which is taking world attention
for countless reasons, but it comes in light of this film availability around the exact same time. Nothing more. With or without such context, it's
still a painful waste of time with a terrible, if not fake, marketing.
"Rescue Bus 300" is sold as a thriller, based on actual events, that chronicles the 1984 hijacking of a bus in Gaza, when Palestinian terrorists
took over an Israeli vehicle filled with passengers, threatning to explode it if their demands of releasing prisoners were not met. However, the
drama of it all quickly shifts to become a documentary as similar as the ones made by Discovery, with survivors and witness of the event become the
central point of everything and the film is a mere re-enactment told in a poor manner. It comes as a surprise the twist because there's no narrators and
the film goes quite well, until a voice appears, then countless talking heads begin to share their experiences, from the victims who were on the bus,
the military behind negotiations and tactic attacks, and a photojournalist who missed everything but a key photo.
I kinda like those specials made by Discovery - though it's not exactly my cup of tea - as there's good things on them and always some fascinating story
to be covered. Here it simply didn't work. The re-enactment was of little interest, highly and painful one-dimensional with all the characters, repetitive and poorly made.
The interviews, which overshadows everything, aren't even insightful or curious, and in one particular moment a military man reveals exactly their
fascist nature when it comes to dealing with terrorists (killing is mandatory even when the danger is over and everybody has surrended). But before that
statement, we are shown that their first response when spotting the bus, was shooting at it with total disregard for their own people inside of it.
It's only an hour long, but 15 minutes into it and I was already bored, uninterested and kept going on automatic pilot mode - watching unfold and
trying to follow the insanely fast captions.
It only got fairly interesting when archive images and photos of the actual event appeared and when a plot twist revealed why this takeover marked the inner
politics of Israel. I don't wanna spoil that bit, so here's two options you can try: fast forward to the last ten minutes or reserach the Bus 300 incident on the
internet. On both scenarios you'll be saving a lot of time that can be spent better without watching the whole thing. Those final moments, despite occupying very
little time, should be the main focus of the documentary as they reveal the true nature of conflicts and that sometimes one cannot escape from inner
criticism and mistakes are made on both sides. And all that was needed was simply one perfect photograph. The final bits are worthy of discussions; the
kidnapping, as critical as it was, doesn't convince much. 2/10.
