When I was in the theater, I felt like I was sitting in the plane as it hit the ice-cold Hudson River. This feeling was one of many while watching “Sully.”
Clint Eastwood’s new movie, “Sully,” starring Tom Hanks, is a thriller about the US Airways flight 1542 that miraculously landed in the middle of the Hudson river, nicknamed “Miracle on the Hudson.” Not only does it take the viewer through the crash landing, but it also puts the whole event in the perspective of the hero, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks).
In the film, when the National Transportation Safety Board investigates the forced water landing, they notice that although the Airbus A320 lost both its engines, it could have turned around and landed safely at its initial spot of Laguardia Airport, or an alternate airport on the other side of the Hudson. Eastwood does a phenomenal job of showing the raw emotion of Sully and his co-pilot, First Officer Jeffrey Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), when their hero status is being put in jeopardy by the NTSB, who are eager to find them guilty.
What I loved about “Sully” was that it wasn’t just the scary scenes from the main event of the story, but it also included Sully’s imagination of how the event could have happened differently through visions he has of the plane hitting buildings in New York’s skyline. Eastwood balances the action scenes with interrogations by the National Transportation Safety Board, along with his family back home overwhelmed by all the media.
An aspect of “Sully” that Eastwood does so incredibly well is that when we go through the crash landing for the first time, it is mostly in the perspective of a few guys who just made it in time to get on the plane. Because the time in the cabin is focused on them, it makes it much more relatable in an incident that is very difficult to connect to.
We all know how the story ends, but Eastwood uses his motion picture magic by making it very suspenseful for the viewer.
With a star role in the movies “Forrest Gump,” “Apollo 13, “Big,” and many others, some doubted that Tom Hanks would be able to deliver as well as he did in the past. However, in my opinion, Hanks does an outstanding job in portraying a man who has been traumatized by not only a near-death experience, but by the mental aftermath.
Not only would I recommend seeing “Sully,” I would encourage it. Eastwood’s use of amazing special effects and raw emotion is why I see “Sully” as one of the best movies of 2016.
