The fact that all passengers survive is awesome.
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That Sully ultimately saves the day is already known to most viewers, so it’s the human moments in the film that propel the drama; Sullenberger reassuring his concerned wife Lorraine (Laura Linney) while he’s stuck in NY dealing with the investigation; a passenger (Sam Huntington) filled with relief that his elderly father has survived the crash; a bartender (Michael Rapaport) who can’t believe the hero on the TV screen has meandered into his bar; an NYPD diver (Jerry Ferrera) who rushes into action to save the soaked and freezing passengers.
And director Clint Eastwood certainly doesn’t shy away from that crash (sorry Captain Sully, I mean “forced water landing”), showing the full event a couple of times throughout the course of the film.
They call each other crash buddies, once strangers, now family- both passengers and survivors of the “Miracle on the Hudson”, who all call Sully a hero. The incident was hailed as the “Miracle on the Hudson”, and the soft-spoken, fatherly Sullenberger was asked to share his story over and over on everything from “60 Minutes” to David Letterman.
“We just survived a plane crash and now we’re going to drown”, she thought. But, what I and probably lots of other people weren’t aware of, was the grilling Sully would take afterward. We all know how to be accused.
The titular character, the stoic and unflappable Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, is played by Tom Hanks, who is running here on likeability autopilot. Pictures” “Sully’ at Directors Guild Of America on September 8, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Eastwood, however, is the true star of “Sully”. It’s evident director and writer were aware of how average Sully’s life was leading up to the event because at a scant 96-minutes there’s more meat than filler, though the meat is minuscule. As for Sully himself, a modest and reserved fellow with an upright military carriage and a neatly combed snow-white mustache, he might have come straight from Frank Capra-era central casting. It trusts the audience to know the gist of what happened, and rolls out further details as it progresses.
As an extra bonus, the museum is offering $2 off the admission price with a “Sully” movie ticket. Characters are presented as they are, and only Tom Hanks infuses his character with depth, usually through tortured looks of anguish etched onto his face like a mask.
Jones exited and was on the plane’s left wing for nearly 20 minutes.
“Sully” premieres on Labor Day weekend at the Telluride Film Festival. For example, watching from inside the cockpit as the captain tersely advises his crew and passengers to “brace for impact” feels completely different, and way more frightening, after we’ve witnessed the effect of this unexpected PA announcement on the plane’s occupants, some of whom take a break from bracing to type goodbye texts to their loved ones. “Brace! Brace! Head down, stay down” left me emotionally paralyzed. Drama is the last thing anyone on board wanted, not the kind that would put all their lives in danger and whose very existemce depended on the actions of the plane’s captain on a most unusual Mayday. He’s calm and stoic during the water landing sequence, but his Oscar potential is limited to playing a figure best known as a Jeopardy answer.
Co-pilot (Aaron Eckhart) after the bird strikeCourtesy of Warner Bros. He’s Sully’s compatriot and yes-man.
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There are two major settings in this film. With that in mind, Laura Linney is given limited screen time as Lorraine, Sully’s wife who kept him grounded during this hard period. I highly recommend viewing Sully on a large format screen to really appreciate it.
