Grace under pressure
By Jonathan Kane
“Sully,” the new biopic from venerable 86-year-old director and American icon Clint Eastwood, makes for straight-ahead entertainment that should be pleasing to a mass audience. It also stars Tom Hanks – which adds to its luster.
But it must be noted that while still delivering the goods, Eastwood can still make some odd choices as a director and the film also suffers sometimes from a bit of the melodramatic.
Is there anyone out there that doesn’t know the amazing story? On January 15, 2009, 42-year-old Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger piloted US Airways Flight 1549 out of LaGuardia Airport in New York City with 155 crew and passengers on board.
Soon after departure, the plane was hit by a flock of geese, with the birds taking out both engines at once – something that had never happened before in the history of commercial aviation. With a decision to return to La Guardia or try for Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, Sullenberger made the calculations, based on years of experience, that neither was possible. Heroically, he chose the Hudson River in an impossible water landing and saved everyone on board.
Of course, it’s the aviation scenes that take center stage and are beautifully executed by Eastwood. Told multiple times from everyone’s perspective, the scenes are riveting and give the audience their money’s worth.
But, of course, there needs to be more than the crash, so the dramatic heart of the film is the National Transportation Safety Board, with their cliché cast of characters, accusing Sully of making the wrong decision and sacrificing the valuable plane by his belief that it couldn’t make land.
In the end, he is vindicated. Today, Sullenberger remains a hero for our times.