[yasr_overall_rating]
The story of Chesley Sullenberger, who became a hero after gliding his plane along the water in the Hudson River, saving all of the airplane flights 155 crew and passengers.
As producer and director, Clint Eastwood has already proven that skills make all the difference in how behind-the-scenes magic changes the entire interpretation of a story. With “Sully,” Eastwood has once again put together a cast of believable actors that make a harrowing story even more realistic in a true-to-life fate that both enlightens and unnerves the audience as victory and defeat are both served in the same dish.
Tom Hanks is perfect as Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger, an experienced pilot who back in 2009 landed US Airlines flight 1549 on the Hudson River. While four decades of flying could never prepare him for the forced water landing due to dual engine failures in January of 2009, he handled the impact valiantly and with the certainty that only years of experience could have afforded him. No less impactful, is his Co-pilot, Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart ) whose greatest acting consists of his facial expressions in reaction to the split-second decisions that changed his life in the 208 seconds that surrounded that very moment and every moment thereafter. In the midst of the investigations that followed, the scrutiny that they faced from the NTSB was powerful and necessary, however, when the human factor was added to the equation, both pilots were referred to as heroes, having delivered 155 souls on board who although very shaken, cold and wet, came out of the crash with their lives spared. The raw emotion of the pilots, passengers, family members and every contributing rescuer served the actors well as most everyone could relate to the frantic environment that required a tremendous amount of teamwork in order to reduce and eliminate confusion and despair.
With just enough humor and sarcasm, this film takes a delicate situation and goes beneath the surface to examine just how far tragedy and triumph goes in the lives of those who are responsible for the lives of others, yet have to rely on their own strengths to carry the full burden of the situation. Even if you kept up with every detail of the headlines back in 2009, this film provides more perspectives that you may need to consider in order to fully appreciate The Miracle on the Hudson and the human factors that had to be considered in such an undeniably heroic situation.
In theaters Friday, September 9th
