Tom Hanks can play the regular everyman hero like no one else.
Tom Hanks plays Chelsey Sullenberger the real life pilot of US Airways flight 1549 that had to land on the Hudson River.
Sully, written and directed by Clint Eastwood, is based on the January 15, 2009 incident where the plane he was flying was hit by a flock of birds that destroyed both engines causing Sullenberger to land the plane in the middle of the Hudson River. The movie is based on the book Highest Duty, Sullenberger’s autobiography Highest Duty.
The movie begins with the airplane in the middle of the crash landing. The tension of the movie comes the investigation into the crash in the immediate days after. Most people did not there was the pressure from the insurance company to find out if Sully had the chance to land the airplane at an airport. Sully realizes that the investigation is trying to find out if the incident was due to pilot error which could end his career. “A million passengers delivered and I am going to be judged on 208 seconds,” he laments to his First Officer.
Getting grilled.
Eastwood cuts back and forth between the airplane flight, the investigation, and phone calls with his wife, played Laura Linney. Eastwood also cuts away and shows a father with his grown sons as they barely make the flight, and then are split up. The family is separated during the incident as one son is in the back of the plane. They reconnect via phone after the landing, with one son in New Jersey, and the father and other son in New York. Eastwood uses these cutaways to bring more human touches to the movie.
And he needs to do this, because in terms of subject matter there is not a lot here. The landing was very well know. Sully and the plane’s crew did a tour of national media, visiting David Letterman at one point. The entire flight lasted 208 seconds, and all the passengers were rescued within 24 minutes. But Eastwood has to tell a story that last 90 minutes or 5400 seconds. The movie last nearly three times longer than the actual event. That’s weakness of the film. Eastwood needs to revisit the crash many times in what begins to fill like filler.
We know that Sully is stressed and scared that he almost crashed the plane with 155 souls on board. But he didn’t. How many times does that need to be shown?
Tom Hanks is a near perfect Sully. A quiet everyday man that goes about doing his job without fanfare or praise. But then his quiet dedication to his job ends up making him a hero, much like his character from Saving Private Ryan.
Aaron Eckhart is excellent as First Officer Jeff Skiles. Laura Linney is great as Sully’s wife. And look for the actual flight passengers and Sully himself in footage during the closing credits.
Final Thoughts
Tom Hanks is solid in this movie. Check this out from Netflix for a compelling behind the scenes story of the incident that brought Americans together for a brief moment.