DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood LEAD CAST: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney PRODUCER: Clint Eastwood, Frank Marshall, Tim
Moore, Allyn Stewart SCREENWRITER:
Todd Komarnicki BASED
ON: Highest Duty by Chesley Sullenberger
and Jeffrey Zaslow MUSIC: Christian Jacob, The Tierney Sutton Band CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tom Stern
EDITOR: Blu Murray GENRE:
Drama, Biography PRODUCTION
COMPANY: Village Roadshow Pictures,
RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Flashlight Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company,
Malpaso Productions DISTRIBUTOR: Warner
Bros. Pictures COUNTRY: United States LANGUAGE: English RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes
Technical assessment:
4
Moral assessment: 4
CINEMA rating:
V14
Director Clint Eastwood
translates into film the true story of a US Airways jet landing on the Hudson
River that took the world by storm on January 15, 2009. Playing the plane’s captain Chesley “Sully”
Sullenberger is Tom Hanks, assisted by co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron
Eckhart). Six minutes after the Airbus
takes off from La Guardia airport (New York), a bird strike causes double
engine failure—a May Day situation that calls for an emergency landing. The control tower gives its clearance for the
flight to return to land in La Guardia but soon loses contact with the plane. With every precious second, the hope of
landing on an airport becomes dim, compelling Sullenberger to rely on his knowledge
and experience to arrive at the least damaging solution. Guided by his instincts he decides to use the
Hudson River as a runway—miraculously saving all 155 persons on board. As the historic landing grabs the headlines
and catapults Sully to hero status, the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB)
behind-the-scene investigation reveals that the plane’s left engine was not
totally wrecked as Sullenberger had asserted, and that he could have made a
safe landing in any of the three nearby airports. If proven wrong, Sullenberger would be
stripped of his wings, dishonorably discharged, deprived of retirement
benefits.
Sully is based
on Sullenberger’s memoir, “Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters”
(co-authored by Jeffrey Zaslow). Consummate
actor Hanks is in his element in the cockpit and outside, projecting grace
under pressure—the economy of his word and gesture serving as a clue to the
aviator’s character. Eastwood maintains
a sober tone all throughout, and wisely avoids background music to overdramatize
an already fierce story. There’s a vivid
realism in the cinematic river landing, so that as the plane hits the water and
is instantly swallowed by it, passengers are anything but calm, sensing the
nearness of death. And then the plane
bobs up to the surface. Sully couldn’t have been better helmed
by anyone but Eastwood—it’s the perfect true-to-life plot for a director who values
training, knowledge and instinct more than technology. What adds to the film’s heart is the presence
of the real-life people involved in the rescue: the ferry captain, the frogmen
dropped from the chopper, the Red Cross workers, and others reenacting their
roles.
Sully offers
many learning moments for the viewer.
The hearing conducted by the NTSB team gives us an idea of how airline
accidents are meticulously investigated.
Computer simulations of the Hudson River incident demonstrate that
indeed Sullenberger could have safely turned back to La Guardia and spared the
passengers the horror of a winter river dive. After calmly watching, Sullenberger drops the
bomb: “You are looking for human error, but you are taking humanity out of the
picture.” No pilot has ever been trained
to land on a river. With two engines
dead, the aircraft steadily descending over New York City, contact with the
control tower lost, and 155 lives in his hands, what could a pilot have
done? His best. That’s all Sullenberger did. There was never any practice for such an
emergency, whereas the computer simulations—as the federal investigators
themselves admitted—went through 17 practices before they could perfect the
alternative La Guardia landing. As the
actual footage of the incident was shown for the first time during the hearing,
the NTSB sees the light”—computer simulations may be scientific, but an airline
crash is no video game. Lives are at
stake; computers have neither conscience nor the capacity for heroic acts. What makes Sullenberger a true hero is his
humility. Amidst the public’s adulation,
Sullenberger does not hog the limelight.
His composure reveals an interior serenity deeply rooted in gratitude
for having survived. Not the one to
claim credit for the “miracle”, Sullenberger at the end of the hearing says “It
wasn’t just me, it’s all of us. We all
did it. We survived.”
