‘Sully’ movie review

“We did our job,” declares the protagonist of the film.  Clint Eastwood’s film ‘Sully’ is an unabashed and confident look at a real-life hero.   Adapted from the book “Highest Duty’ by Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, Todd Komarnicki’s sure-footed screenplay ably covers the disaster as well as the tense aftermath.  It’s the way Eastwood expands and contracts time that gives the drama its harrowing intensity.  On top of the masterful direction, you have an egoless performance from one of Hollywood’s best everyman in movies today.  The reason ‘Sully’ is so compelling is Tom Hanks.  The film is a solid tribute to a man who exhibited stoic heroism and professionalism.  Brace for Impact!  The fall movie season has begun.

The sight of an airliner flying along the New York skyline at low altitude is horrifying.  Eastwood understands this and realizes that the 9/11 attacks still haunt the American psyche.  The film wastes no time getting to the heart of the story.  It’s through clever editing, flashbacks and what happened after the accident that makes ‘Sully’ an engaging film.  Everyone knows what happened on that fateful day in January 2009.  It’s an intense and frightening 208 seconds.  What if you and your loved ones were on that flight?  Eastwood handles the disaster with precision but it is the flashbacks, post-traumatic nightmares and the incident recreated in flight simulators that makes it so gripping.

Captain Sullenberger (Hanks) was the veteran pilot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549.  Just seconds after take-off from La Guardia Airport, the captain says the word “birds.”  A flock of Canada geese knock out both engines. All of a sudden, there is complete silence as the engines lose thrust and the plane begins to fall back to earth. Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (a top-notch Aaron Eckhart) only have seconds to decide what course of action to take.  It’s an unnerving sequence to watch.  Do they try to make it back to La Guardia Airport?  Sully decides that making an emergency landing on the Hudson River was his best chance at saving the 155 crew and passengers on board.  When the air traffic controller suggests turning back to La Guardia or landing at nearby Teterboro in New Jersey, Sullenberger utters, “We may end up in the Hudson.”

Days after the incident, Sullenberger and Skiles are living out of a Manhattan hotel where the two pilots are bombarded with press interviews and inquiries by the National Transportation Safety Board.  It is the relentless grilling by aviation safety officials that gives the film added drama.  While the public is hailing Sullenberger as a hero, the aviation board is questioning his decision to crash land and damage the airliner in the Hudson.  Under similar adverse conditions, they run multiple flight simulation tests inferring that they may have had enough time to turn back for a safe landing at La Guardia Airport.  It becomes obvious through the hearings how our society has become so reliant on computers and disregarding the human factor.  This is where Hanks shines in his performance.  He captures a selfless man at the top of his profession.  Hanks makes it look so easy that it certainly deserves Oscar attention.

The accident is described from several viewpoints.  Eastwood shoots the 208 seconds with skill and precision.  It is eerie to hear the flight attendants repeat the same phrase before impact.  They chant, “Head down, stay down, head down, stay down.”  Ultimately, Eastwood not only pays tribute to Sullenberger but to all of the first responders that assisted with the rescue of the passengers on that frigid day on the Hudson River.  ‘Sully’ has the right stuff and is worth a trip to the movies.

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