My husband and I went to see Sully on opening night, and we found the largest theater at the Village Theatre packed with patrons. Everyone there could remember the original “miracle on the Hudson,” the event around which the movie is based: the real-life landing of U.S. Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River of New York City on January 15, 2009, after a flock of birds flew into both engines. Tom Hanks played the part of the famous pilot–Cpt. Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger–who landed the plane that day.
Clint Eastwood directed the movie, and he had his work cut out for him in making it. The event of a plane landing in the water is dramatic, but that only took 200 seconds in real life, so how can someone make a movie that lasts 96 minutes?
The answer is that Eastwood divulged “the untold story” and revealed the intense investigation that Cpt Sully and his first officer, Jeffery Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), underwent after the event. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) maintained that Sully made an error in landing in the Hudson because their data showed that (a) only one of Flight 1549’s engines went out in a bird strike, not both engines, and (b) that even without both engines, Sully had time to fly the plane to a nearby airport.
Will Sully be able to save his reputation and his career? Does he remember the event correctly? The story is told through a series of overlapping flashbacks, as well as disconcerting nightmares that Sully had after the event. While the nation and the world played the footage of the successful water landing over and over, hailing Sully an unquestionable hero, Sully and Skiles faced the hidden challenge with the NTSB. Were they real heroes or just merely lucky that their brash water landing didn’t lead to the deaths of the 155 passengers?
My husband and I enjoyed the movie, but, as my husband says, “Right from the beginning there were sappy moments that made the movie more tame, ‘feel good’ fare than high drama.” For instance, the phone calls between Sully and his wife were sweet, but there was also an element of cheesiness to them that left us rolling our eyes. Because the movie also started after the event and then told it through a series of flashbacks, the drama seemed halfway over in the first few minutes of the film. The NTSB investigation gained momentum and drama eventually, however.
Critics overall have liked the movie, and it currently has a 8/10 rating on IMDb and 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. Peter Debruge in Variety says it is “a remarkable true story that inspires confidence not only in its leading man, but in honest, hard-working Americans everywhere.” The Wall Street Journal concurs, saying, “An impressive achievement, a portrait of a good man whose heroism lay in having the right stuff and knowing how to use it during a small eternity of looming chaos and unprecedented peril.” A few other critics came to similar conclusions as I did, however, saying, “Sully amounts to a respectable yet unmemorable account of real-life heroism, despite fine performances and capable direction” (Sandy Schaefer, Screen Rant), and “This ‘Sully’ never soars” (Steven Whitty, New York Daily News).
The film has a rating of PG-13, but it is not scary or offensive and would be appropriate for children much younger than 13 to enjoy. It is definitely family-friendly and might make a fun Friday night movie choice at home. In the meantime, it is an encouraging counter to the 15th anniversary of September 11th for, as one of the characters says in the movie, here is a good story of an airplane in New York City.
Movie times: click here
Genre: Drama, Biography
Directors: Clint Eastwood
Actors: Tom Hands, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney
Rating: PG-13 for thematic material
Running Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
