Review: ‘Three Days of Terror’ documentary recounts Charlie Hebdo attacks

“Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks,” which premieres Monday on HBO, is a swift, sleek documentary built entirely from on-the-scene images and the remembrances of people who were there or otherwise directly involved.

Dispensing with historical context and scholarly opinion, it is a kind of humanistic action film, concerned almost entirely with what happened and the experiences of the people it happened to. Some familiarity with the subject is assumed.

But to recap briefly, Charlie Hebdo is a satirical French magazine whose Paris offices were attacked in January 2015 by two men, supposedly affiliated with Al Qaeda in Yemen. The men killed 10 staff members, a building maintenance man and a policeman before going on the run. Two days later, also in Paris, a third man, acquainted with the first two, killed a policewoman and then went on to take hostages in a nearby Kosher grocery, killing four; maps discovered later suggested plans to attack Jewish schools.

The film becomes conscious of the terrorists just as their plans turn to action and dispenses with them as soon as the police do, and they do. That we learn little about their background, motivation or philosophy doesn’t feel like a problem, and may be the point – a killer’s a killer, no matter how righteous he imagines himself or his cause. The roots of terrorism need to be understood, but understanding isn’t always what the situation requires.

Although there’s something sensational in the bones of the project, director Dan Reed keeps things measured and cool, steering clear of redundant dramatic effects. Indeed, one feels that he possesses worse pictures than he shows, that he cuts away when appropriate. More than enough drama remains: recollections of escapes and mistakes, of cellphones ringing in the pockets of the dead; the “Je Suis Charlie” demonstrators flooding the streets and squares, holding pens aloft in the night; life and death on security cameras.

This is the fourth true-life “Terror” film for Reed, following his “Terror in Moscow” (2003), in which Chechen rebels took several hundred people hostage in a Moscow theater; “Terror in Mumbai” (2009), about coordinated attacks by Pakistan-based militants in India’s biggest city; and “Terror at the Mall” (2014), concerning the mass shooting at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping complex by members of the Islamic extremist group Shabab.

After that, Reed told the New York Times, “I don’t know if I can do this kind of film again.” He did; hopefully it won’t become a life’s work.

‘Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks’

Where: HBO

When: 8 p.m. Monday

Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

On Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd

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