Sully (2016) review

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that Clint Eastwood is almost 90 years old (he’s 86 right now). And yet despite that age he is still continuing to work as a director. He’s directed 35 films since 1971 and plenty of them have been well-received by critics and audiences. Two of his films, 1992’s Forgiven and 2004’s Million Dollar Baby, have won Best Picture and he won both times for Best Director as well. He had a pretty darn solid year two years ago in 2014 with not one but two directorial efforts from him. The first was Jersey Boys and although the film was only a modest hit and received mixed reviews, I’d argue that it was one of the most underrated films of that year. Eastwood had much more success, however, with his other directorial effort of that year, American Sniper. The true story of U.S Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle ended up becoming Eastwood’s biggest commercial hit to date and was one of that year’s big contenders for Best Picture. This year, Eastwood takes on another recent true story with Sully. This film tells the story of Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and the events of January 15, 2009, when Sully and co-pilot Jeff Skiles miraculously landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after an unexpected bird strike disabled both of their engines. But while Sully and Skiles did manage to land the plane safely with all 155 of its passengers onboard, soon the two found themselves being questioned over their actions in what this film’s tagline refers to as ‘the untold story behind the Miracle of the Hudson’. And overall, said ‘untold story’ is an engaging, and sometimes tense, retelling of a fascinating true story backed by terrific performances, especially from its two main leads.

As noted in the intro, on January 15^th, 2009, Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) boarded US Airways Flight 1549, which was set to depart from LaGuardia Airport on a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. However, just a few minutes after take-off, the plane unexpectedly crosses paths with a flock of geese, which causes engine failure to both of the plane’s engines. Realizing that there’s little chance of them being able to make it back to LaGuardia or even over to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, Sully decides to take a huge risk and land the plane in the Hudson River. Somehow, someway, the plane successfully lands in the Hudson and all of the 155 passengers and crew members on board survive. However, while Sully does get dubbed a hero by the press, him and Skiles soon find themselves in a particularly stressful situation when they are approached by the National Transportation Safety Board, who begin an investigation over the details surrounding the incident. Specifically, they mainly question Sully’s decision to land the plane on the Hudson, insisting that he could’ve easily landed at either LaGuardia or Teterboro without incident based on computer simulated recreations of the incident. They even imply that one of the engines was still operational. And so, despite his more than 40 years of experience in the air, Sully suddenly finds himself judged on the 208 seconds of his life in which the lives of his passengers, his fellow crew members, and even his own were in his hands.

Now despite what you may think, the whole ‘crash landing in the Hudson’ situation is not the main focus of the film. That part of the story actually ends up being told in a series of fairly lengthy flashbacks. Instead, the bulk of the film is more focused around the aftermath, namely the investigation into the incident that mainly focused in on the fact that Sully decided to do something that no else had ever managed to pull off, and yet he did just that. And while those who are familiar with the incident will no doubt know how everything turns out, overall the film does a solid job at keeping the audience engaged throughout. I was surprised to find that the film is actually pretty short. I only bring this up because many of Eastwood’s recent films have had a runtime of over two hours whereas this is only 96 minutes long. And in this case, that’s a good thing; the film is solidly paced and never overstays its welcome. The whole sequence involving the actual landing on the Hudson is definitely one of the standout moments of the film. Because it’s shown multiple times, we get to see it happen from different perspectives, from Sully and Skiles in the cockpit to the passengers. It’s well-shot and solidly tense throughout, even though obviously we know what’s going to end up happening (e.g. everyone survives). It sounds like this is an interesting film to watch in IMAX. For the record, the film’s marketing notes that the film was primarily shot (about 95% of it to be exact) with IMAX cameras. I didn’t see the film in IMAX but from what I’ve heard, it is worth checking out on that big screen. From what I hear it’s a subtle IMAX job in a film that admittedly doesn’t really rely on ‘big-scale’ camera shots being mostly set in interior spaces.

Being one of the most famous actors of his generation, Tom Hanks is as great as he’s always been throughout his career in the role of Sully. Due to the film spending most of its time after the Hudson incident, it does a really nice job at exploring Sully’s psyche in the days following the incident. Because while we do know how this whole investigation ended, it does make Sully question whether or not he did the right thing by landing the plane in the Hudson. Did he potentially endanger the lives of everyone on board that plane? But while Tom Hanks is certainly terrific in the film, another great performance comes courtesy of one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood at the moment, Aaron Eckhart as Sully’s co-pilot Jeff Skiles. One thing that surprised me about the film was that while the story does maintain a fittingly serious tone throughout, especially during the crash landing scene, there are actually times where there are a few light-hearted quips tossed around from time to time, many of which come from Skiles (including one at the end of the film that I do feel ends it on a good note). And overall I do appreciate that as it helps make Sully and Skiles a likable duo (though really would you expect anything less from someone like Tom Hanks?) that you do want to see overcome their current dilemma. Plus, Hanks and Eckhart do work really well together. Ultimately, they’re the two most important members of the cast. There’s some solid supporting roles from the likes of Laura Linney, who plays Sully’s wife Lorraine, and Anna Gunn, who plays one of the members of the NTSB board, but ultimately their characters only play a minor part in the story (e.g. Linney only appears in a few scenes talking to Sully over the phone from their house).

Now I’ll admit… this might be a bit of a hard film to recommend at the moment if only because of the timing of its release. It was released on September 9^th, just two days before the 15^th anniversary of September 11^th. Though for the record, this was only a coincidental thing as this was the best time that it could be released being an IMAX film. I mean to reference some recent comments from screenwriter Todd Komarnicki, they certainly couldn’t release it in December with the new Star Wars film coming out around that same time. Plus, while they are only part of a series of nightmares that Sully has throughout the film, there are a few sequences of planes crashing into buildings that could most definitely evoke some bad memories for people. But remember last year when I reviewed The Walk, a film about the World Trade Center that actually was a positive story revolving around the Towers? Well, Sully is the same case but in the context of being a film about a plane incident that occurred in New York. This truly was a miraculous moment and while the film does showcase an instance in which its main character was questioned over his actions, at the end of the day the film firmly establishes Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger as the hero that he truly is. And because the film is only an hour and a half long and it’s pretty straight-forward and to the point, it’s a very subtle celebration of his accomplishment. Clint Eastwood’s direction and Tom Hanks’ performance in the role of Sully are as solid as you’d expect from the two film legends. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s one of Eastwood’s best but it’s certainly an enjoyable crowd-pleaser.

Rating: 4/5