Year: 2016
Director: Clint Eastwood
Country: US
Language: English
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549, piloted by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, struck a flock of geese just moments after leaving LaGuardia Airport, rendering both engines unresponsive. Sully's years of pilot experience, as well as his quick thinking, resulted in all 155 passengers surviving, and led to widespread praise for Sully as an American hero. Clint Eastwood’s account of what actually happened evokes thoughts of 9/11 and reminds us of how tragic that incident could have been if it were handled by the wrong individual.
Played by Tom Hanks, Sully was the main character of the "Miracle on the Hudson", gliding his plane into the waters when it became disabled. Heralded as a hero by the media, because he saved all 155 passengers, Sully is a little uncomfortable with the title brought on him. He is also being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
First and foremost Screenwriter Todd Komarnicki takes liberties with the real-life story to pad the run-time and create a conflict; otherwise there may not have been enough material for a feature-length picture, though I disagree with Komarnicki's approach entirely. In real-life the NTSB did not doubt Sully, nor did they go through villainous lengths to show how computer simulations could disprove his status as a "hero", rather they too applauded his piloting efforts.
In real-life Sully was not that humble of a man, infact Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow wasted no time writing a book about what happened, having released Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters just a few short months after the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson”. It's the same kind of American hero worship seen in American Sniper, although in this instance Sullenberger really is a hero, he's just not as humble or controversial as Clint Eastwood would like you to believe.
Despite this, Sully is a very easy character to empathize with. Eastwood successfully manages to give us a sense of just how big his accomplishment really was, and just how much pressure was on the man. In an increasingly divided world, Eastwood is able to show us that great things are possible if we work together. It's a really important lesson that we need to be reminded of in 2016.
Sully is a fairly formal straight-forward presentation that, while historically inaccurate, is engaging and manages to keep us in a constant state of suspense. It fills its run-time adequately, never straying too far from the original intent of the story. I can certainly say this is a "good" film, but needs more character study and less of the villainous NTSB to be considered "great".
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